The Walking Dead
by Pandamore
Summary: Annabell Horvath never expected her life to change so drastically. The undead are eating people and changing them, normal people are stealing and killing one another to survive, starvation is starting to become a problem. The only good thing that came out of the Apocalypse is meeting Daryl Dixon
1. Cast

Kate Beckinsale as Cricket

Jeffrey DeMunn as Dale Horvath

Norman Reedus as Daryl Dixonn

Alex Pettyfier as Nathaniel Dixon

Emma Bell as Amy Harrison

Laurie Holden as Andrea Harrison

Steven Yeun as Glenn Rhee

Andrew Lincoln as Rick Grimes

Chandler Riggs as Carl Grimes

Sarah Wayne Callies as Lori Grimes

Jon Bernthal as Shane Walsh

Irone Signleton as T-Dog

Jeryl Prescott as Jacqui

Juan Gabriel Pareja as Morales

Viviana Chavez as Miranda Morales

Maddie Lomax as Eliza Morales

Noah Lomax as Louis Morales

Andrew Rothenberg as Jim

Noah Emmerich- Dr. Edwin Jenner


	2. Intro

The world as we know it is gone. Cities are overrun, people are corrupt, children are dying left and right. Nothing in the world is ever the same anymore, not since the plague took a hold of the world. No one knows how it started, some say birds carried it, others say some secret lab mad the disease, some even say it started by a cold. However it started it has grown much worst than it was in the first week. In the first week the news said that it was just some illness that was going around and that it'd pass. The beginning of the second week the news said the CDC was looking for a cure for this new sickness. By the third week there was no more news and the radio was telling everyone to flee to Atlanta.

When everyone got there it was too packed, people who were infected got there and the sound of gunfire, cars, and people drew the monsters to the city, the city got overrun by these monsters. What are the monsters, you ask. The monsters are the dead come back to eat the living. A bite from these monsters will turn you into one of them. They only feel hunger and nothing else. Their soul purpose in life is to eat, infect, and kill. Nothing can satisfied their hunger except the flesh of living beings.

When the city got overrun by these monster they sent bombs down to kill as many as they could, but it was to no avail. The city was gone, taken over by the undead, by the walkers. Many lives were taken on this night, many fled, but others found sanctuary at a small place, a pull off of the high way. The few who made it there has been living at this small camp for five weeks. It doesn't feel like a month has past, but it has. These people have managed to survive this long, but how much longer can their luck go?

No one is safe in this world and there will never be a normal life again. There is no going back from here.


	3. Chapter 1

Off of the highway at a small clearing was a group of survivors. They have been living here for a month now, sneaking into the city for supplies whenever they could. Everyone at the camp has to do their part, but it seems the woman do most of the work. The woman are in charge of cooking, cleaning, and washing the clothes. They even scavenge for food in the woods. The men cut the fire wood and tend to the fire, but that's about it for the most of them. Glenn Rhee is the one who risks his life every week to go into the city for supplies. The Dixon family are the ones who hunt for meat and clean and dress it for the women to cook. Dale Horvath keeps an eye on camp and everyone else. Shane Walsh is the supposed leader, while all the other men do small little things to say they do their part.

It's one of the things Annabell Horvath hates about the camp. She was up every day at five washing dishes, cooking breakfast for the men and children, washing the clothes of the people who doesn't have a woman to do it for them. She stays up very late cleaning up after everyone too. The only people who even realize how much Annabell, aka Cricket, does is the Morales family, Amy Harrison, the Dixon Family, her father, Glenn, and T-Dog. All the woman bitch about how she doesn't do enough or the other solo men complain about how they do more than her. The children never notice anything around them. Cricket doesn't like a lot of things about the camp and the only thing keeping her here is her friends, father, and the fact that it's safe.

It was early morning and once again Cricket is the only one up. She was cooking breakfast for everyone and then she would go and wash the dishes for them. Her curly brown hair was pulled back in a pony tail, and she had just dressed for the day. Dressed in a white tank top with a blue flannel over it, a pair of jeans, and her boots. It was a chilly morning, but Cricket spent the night in the rv, so the cool air was very refreshing to her. The rv was always so hot and sticky, if Cricket had it her way she'd sleep on top of the rv.

The sound of a tent opening drew her attention to the Dixon tent. The Dixon were a rough group of redneck, always keeping to themselves, but so far they were harmless and they helped the camp out a lot too, not that anyone, but Cricket notices. The only one Cricket has a problem with is Merle. Merle is a sexist, racist, violent pig. Cricket does well on keeping far from the man.

Cricket sees Merle's nephew step out of the tent. Nathaniel Dixon, or more commonly known as Nate, was a good kid. He stayed out of trouble, helped out when he could, and never back talked anyone. Most would be surprised that he was related to a man like Merle, but the kid was a good kid, just very reserved, distant, and quiet. He didn't say much to anyone and he always stayed away people who aren't his family.

It was sad because the kid is a good looking kid. Short blonde hair, bright blue eyes, tall muscular tan body. Cricket was sure that back before this hell happened that Nate was loved by all girls. He was dressed in jeans, boots, and a a black hoodie. On his back was his favorite black recurve bow that matched the black quiver on his back, detailed in dark red. His arrows were black with a red tip to match too. It was the only weapon Cricket ever seen him carry beside the hunting knife that rests on his right hip.

Cricket pulls her eyes from the boy and back to the food. She was cooking a little more than just herself. Since arriving she found that the Dixons got up pretty early too and so she always made enough in case they were to wake up early. Nate's eyes went to Cricket, where she cooked some breakfast and it didn't take a genius to tell he was hungry. He made his way over and Cricket smiled up at him. "Morning, Nate." He gave her a small smile, the most he ever gave anyone.

"Morning, Cricket." He says in his quiet soft spoken voice.

"You hungry?" She asks and he gave a small nod, causing her to smile. "There's plenty." She motions for him to take a seat, which he did after a moment of thinking it over. She grabs a paper plate, the regular plates dirty from the night before, and she put a good amount of food on it and handed it over to Nate.

"Thanks, Cricket." Cricket smiles at Nate and nods. Nate was a good kid despite who he had for a family. Nate always had the best manners and Cricket never heard him fight or get upset with anyone. It was exactly the opposite of his uncle, who goes off almost every day at any person.

Silence falls between the two as Cricket gets some food for herself. "Are you going hunting?" She asks once she got her plate settled in her lap.

"My dad and I are." Nate tells her. Daryl Dixon wasn't like Merle either. He didn't have the manners of Nate or the calmness, he still was a hothead and dangerous man, but he wasn't sexist or racist like Merle. It almost seems as if Daryl says racist or sexist things because he knows no better than to do that, whereas Merle knows he shouldn't, but does it anyways. The Dixons always seems to interest Cricket.

"So what about your uncle?" Cricket asks, knowing Merle normally is always with the other Dixon men.

"He was talking about going into the city with the supply group." Today would be the first time Glenn takes a group to go into the city and he is not too please about it, but to add Merle into it was not going to help. As if reading her mind, Nate adds, "I know it's not ideal, but... I think it'd be better if you just let him go." Nate tells her. "He's been moody lately." Nate stands up, having finished his breakfast, and throws the plate in the trash bag that is always close by where they cooked. "Thanks for breakfast." Cricket smiles at him.

"No problem, kid. Tell your dad there's plenty if he wants some." Nate nods before making his way back to the small camp that the Dixons have near their tent.

As Cricket finishes her food she sees Daryl speaking to his son, his eyes landed on Cricket, but she quickly busied herself with throwing her plate away. She always hated having Daryl's eyes on her. It felt like he was looking through her and it always managed to send shivers down her. "Nate mentioned you had breakfast." Cricket looks over and sees Daryl standing there, looking over Cricket's shoulder and not looking right at her, it seems Daryl hated meeting her eyes, but Cricket could understand his reasoning, staring into someone's eyes was a very intense feeling.

"Yeah, help yourself." She says before going and collecting the dirty dishes. "I'll be down at the creek if you need me." She tells him before she walks away and heads down to the creek. As she washes the plates off from the food stains left on them from the night before, her mind wonders to the first time she met Daryl...

 _Cricket has been at the camp for just about week now and she hated the feeling of dirt all over her. She was used to have a shower every day, but here it was very hard to ever clean up. After about a week over waking up early Cricket has learned that no one wakes up when she does, in fact no one wakes up until two hours after she does, so Cricket decided to wake up an hour and half earlier and wash in the creek. It was something she desperately needed and so she grabbed a bar of soap, small bottles of shampoo and conditioner, a towel, and a change of clothes before heading down the creek. She places her things on a rock and begins to peel her sweaty clothes off her body and drop them to the ground. She felt itchy with how much dirt and grime was on her. She had had her hair up in a pony tail for three days, not wanting to feel the grease on her skin, but now she lets it free and is falls down her back._

 _She runs her fingers through it and sigh as she feels the grime of it. Once naked she grabs the shampoo, conditioner, and soup and walks to the creek. She walks until the water is to her waist and places the cleaning materials on a small bolder that is rested in the water. She closes her eyes and sinks below the water, letting the water go over her hair and body fully. When she comes back up she grabs the shampoo and lathers her hair in it. She begins to hum softly as she massages it into her hair, wanting it as clean as possible. When it can no longer get any more clean she leans her head back and washes her hair free of soap, still humming softly._

 _Once the shampoo is out of her hair she continues on to conditioner. This takes a shorter amount of time and once it's out she goes from the soap before she hears someone's voice. "You're in a camp full of men and you think bathing is a smart idea?" Cricket freezes and looks over her shoulder to see a man standing there, He had a cross bow swung over his shoulder and a string of squirrel in his left hand._

 _"If you had any attention of doing something you would have done it already." Cricket says before turning back around and continuing washing up. The man couldn't see anything, but her bare back, so Cricket didn't worry. If he wanted to do something he would have done it. It's simple and obvious._

 _"Doesn't mean the next guy won't." The man says, causing Cricket to shrug._

 _"No one is usually up at this time." She tells him._

 _"My brother is." She frowns as he says this. It wasn't just a statement, it was a warning. She looks over at him and he's staring right at her. "Like I said, not very smart." He turns and without another word, makes his way back up to camp._

 _Cricket, realizing what the man said, quickly finishes up and gets dried off so she can be dressed before this so called brother makes an appearance._

Even then Cricket knew Daryl would never hurt her. If he wanted to he could have done so quite easily before now. In a way Cricket trusts Daryl even more so than the so called leader. Cricket smiles at the thought before hissing in pain as the knife she had been washing, slices her finger. She looks down and only sees red. "Shit." She hisses as she drops the knife back in the bucket that holds the dishes.

"You okay?" Cricket almost jumps out of her skin as she hears Daryl's voice. She's surprised to see him standing only a little bit away, she hadn't even heard him coming, it's not too surprising after all he had always been very quite.

"Oh, uh, yeah, just cut my finger." Cricket says, causing a frown to come over Daryl's lips.

"Let me see." He says as he moves towards where she sat on the ground, he knelt down on one knee and took her finger in his hands. She was surprised with how gentle he was as he washes off her finger with the water he had in his water bottle, who know how dirty the creek could be. Once he washes it off they both can clearly see it's deep. "You need to be more careful." He mumbles before pulling out one of his rags. She jerks her hand back, knowing how dirt his rags are. "Relax, its a clean one." Daryl says, noticing her pointed look at the rag. Daryl grabs his knife, cutting a bit into the rag before ripping a piece off with his bare hands. He wraps the strip of rag tightly around Cricket's finger, causing the bleeding to slow. "To stop the bleeding." He tells her. "Before you can go and get it cleaned up properly. Don't need you fainting from blood lost." Cricket rolls her eyes at the statement.

"I doubt I'd faint from here to the rv in that amount of time." She tells him, but he ignores her statement as he puts his knife back in its holder and his rag back in his back pocket. He stands up and without another word heads towards the woods, where he'd been heading to in the beginning. "Thanks Daryl." Cricket says, causing him to pause. He glances back at her before nodding and continuing his way into the woods. Cricket sighs and looks down at the dishes. She had cleaned a good portion of them, but she won't be able to clean them with one hand, so she takes the bucket of clean and dirty dishes and bring them back up.

She places them by the fire and walks back into the rv to fix her finger up, but you'd be nuts to think she got rid of the piece of rag, after all it was from Daryl Dixon.


	4. Chapter 2

"Thanks for helping me with the fire wood, Amy." Cricket says as she walks out of the woods with Amy. Many people think Amy is just some city girl who depends on others to survive, but since meeting Amy, Cricket has tried to teacher her everything she knows. Cricket, ever since she was a little girl, has wanted to learn survival learning. Since she was 7 she had went to a survival camp where the spend the summer in the woods, surviving on nature. Now that she's older she had taken her survival skills and became a camp councilor at that very camp, now it seems all her skills are coming into use.

"You're welcome, Cricket." Ever since people heard Cricket's father, Dale, call her this they've been doing the same. "Why is that Dale calls you Cricket anyways?" She asks.

"When I was five my mom was killed by a drunk driver. I stopped talking for two years. The only thing that got me talking was when my dad called me cricket. He said I was like a cricket, barely making a sound. It just... I don't know. It got to me I guess. I told my dad that I'd start speaking if he called me that, reminding me to never give up. It was after that that I decided I wanted to learn to survive, incase something was to happen."

"Wow... I'm so sorry. That must have been so hard." Cricket nods.

"Yeah, I was also an advanced kid. Understood death even at the early age of five, got my period when I was only 13, started having boobs since I was 14," Cricket smiles at Amy as she giggles. "You get my point."

"Yeah, I do." She giggles. "How is it that you're single?" Cricket gives a sigh as she looks at Amy.

"Guys are intimidated by me. I know more stuff than most guys, with survival stuff. I'm a tomboy, always out roughing it and it scares many guys away. I need someone who is just as tough."

"Well it's there lost. You're a cool chick." Amy says, causing Cricket to smile. "You know... Daryl is a tough guy." Cricket blushes as she looks at Amy. Cricket has very few friends at the camp who are girls, which are Amy and Miranda, both of which always tease Cricket about how perfect Daryl is for her.

"Amy, he's not interested in me. He's a loner, he cares about family than some chick-

"Can anybody hear my voice?" Cricket frowns as a voice cuts her off. "Anybody out there? Anybody hear me, please respond."

"Is that the radio?" Cricket asks.

"Hello can you hear my voice."

"It is." Amy gasps as she and Cricket runs to the radio. They drop the wood and Amy picks up the mic. "Hey, hello?"

"Can you hear my voice?" The voice over the radio asks again.

"Yes, I can hear you. You're coming through, over."

"If anybody reads, please respond." The car says, causing Cricket to look at Amy in confusion. "Broadcasting on emergency channel. Will be approaching Atlanta on highway 85. If anybody reads, please respond."

"We're just out of the city." The radio only crackles at Amy's response. "Damn it. Hello? Hello?" Amy sighs and looks up at Cricket. "He couldn't hear me." She looks at Dale. "I couldn't warn him."

"Try to raise him again." Dale says.

"The radio is busted, Dad. We can hear him, but he can't hear us." Cricket says.

"Come on, son, you know best how to work this thing." Dale says to Shane, causing him to drop his ax and walk over to the cb.

"Hello, hello. Is the person who called still on air?" Shane asks as he bends down beside the radio. "This is officer Shane Walsh broadcasting to person unknown. Please respond." The radio only crackles causing everyone's face to turn somber. "He's gone." Shane says.

"There are others. It's not just us."

"We knew there would be, right." Shane says. "It's why we left the CB on."

"A lot of good it's been doing." Lori says, causing Cricket to sigh.

"Okay." Shane says.

"Look, the point is we should have put signs up, warning people." Cricket says.

"I agree, I've been saying for a week we ought put signs up on 85 and warn people away from the city." Lori says, surprising Cricket by agreeing with her.

"Folks got no idea what they're getting themselves into." Amy speaks somberly as she shakes her head.

"Well we haven't had time." Shane stands up and Cricket shakes her head.

"We had time, Shane, I offered to it for a long time, but no one lets me. You all are too scared that something will happen." Cricket says, causing Shane to give her a look.

"I think we need to make time." Lori agrees once more.

"Yeah, that- that's a luxury we can't afford." Shane says.

"You always say that, Shane, but that guy is going into the city and he's going to get ripped to shreds." Cricket snaps.

"We are surviving here. We are day to day."

"And who the hell would you propose to send?" Dale asks.

"Dad, I'll go. I've been offering for weeks now." Cricket says.

"I'm not letting my little girl going out there." Dale says.

"Dad-

"Hell, I'll go. Give me a vehicle." Lori says.

"Nobody goes anywhere alone. You know that." Shane says.

"Then I'll take Cricket, she's willing to go." Lori says.

"You will certainly not." Dale retorts back.

"Yes, sirs." Lori says as she walks off in a pissy mood.

"And this is why you look like the bad guy all the time." Cricket mumbles before she picks up the wood that Amy and her dropped and begins to carry it to the fire.

Cricket sits by the fire and Amy walks over to join her. "I'm worried." She says, causing Cricket to look over at her.

"If he goes into the city we can only hope our supply group find him and helps him out."

"Yeah... I'm worried about him getting hurt. This world... it kills people so easily."

"I know it's hard, Amy, but it's the world we live in now. All we can do is hope everything works out."

"Mmm. You'd make a good mother or big sister." Amy says as she rests her head on Cricket's shoulder.

"Oh would I?" Cricket smile.

"Yeah, you always able to make me feel better. Andrea is always trying to protect me, but you try to teach me."

"I guess I see a lot of myself in you, Amy." Amy looks up in surprise.

"Really?"

"Yeah, when I was younger, maybe about your age, I was so innocent. I believed life was perfect and sunny and then one day I realized it wasn't that's when I started changing. It's your time to change too and I'll help you as much as you want." Cricket tells Amy, causing her to hug her.

"Would it be weird if I told you I love you." Cricket smiles.

"No because I love you too. You're a very good girl, Amy and have an amazing heart. You're like a the sister I never got." Amy smiles and hugs her tighter.

"Thanks you, Cric." Cricket smiles and kisses the top of her head.

"My birthday is coming up."

"Is it? I'll have to have the group doing something special for it."

"You don't have to-

"What is a world where we don't celebrate birthdays anymore or holidays?" She looks down at Amy. "It's a world not worth living that's what."

"Thank you, Cricket." She smiles and looks down at the fire. "What was your favorite holiday?" Amy suddenly asks.

"Mmm I loved all the holidays. My least favorite is defiantly Valentines day, hard to like that holiday when you're always alone."

"I understand that."

"Oh please, a girl like you, you probably had guys running all after you." Amy giggles.

"Same can be said for you."

"Oh certainly not." Cricket says. "But um, my favorite. I think if I really had to think about it my favorite would be the 4th of July. I love fireworks. My dad used to tell me when I was a little girl that the colors were seen in Heaven and the reason he takes me to see fireworks is so my mom can see my through the lights."

"Your dad sounds like a great dad." Cricket smiles and nod.

"Yeah, but he's very over protective. Since he has been a single father since I was five he is always wrapping me up in bubble wrapping. The camp I went to every summer was really my only escape, allowing me not to be cooped up."

"Yeah... Do you remember your mom."

"Yeah, I remember her, not too well, but enough." Amy nods and sighs.

"I miss my parents." Cricket wraps her arms around Amy and kisses her temple.

"I know you do, honey, but I promise things will get better."

"When do you think Nate and Daryl will be back from their hunt?"

"I don't know. I hope they bring back a lot of meat." Cricket sighs. "We need it. We can't survive on can food."

"Cricket, Amy, can you two go and gather some more mushrooms." Lori asks as she holds out a bucket.

"Sure, come on Cric." Cricket stood and took the bucket.

"We'll be right back." Cricket tells her before heading into the woods with Amy.

"Hey Cricket?"

"Yeah?"

"Do you ever talk to Nate?" Cricket frowns and looks over at Amy.

"Why?"

"No reason."

"Do you..." She looks at Amy as realization comes over in her eyes. "Do you like Nate."

"What? Of course not. Are you not. I... I do not like Nate. He's... He's not my type." Cricket laughs and shakes her head at Amy's terrible lying.

"You are an awful liar. It's obvious you like him, I can't believe I haven't seen it before."

"Oh shut up." Amy blushes as she gathers mushrooms. "Let's just get these mushrooms quickly."

"Whatever you say, Amy." Cricket smiles before she follows Amy.

Cricket walks over to where Miranda Morales sat watching her children. "Hey, Miranda." Cricket says as she sits down beside her.

"How are you, Cricket." Miranda asks with a smile.

"Doing as good as expected. It's warm today." Miranda nods.

"Yes, very warm. It's a nice day." She smiles. "Even if there's walkers everywhere." Cricket laughs.

"Yeah, as long as they stay out of camp I'm perfectly fine." She smiles and nods at Cricket's words.

"Amen to that." Miranda says. "What happened to your finger?" She points to the now bandaged finger.

"Washing the dishes."

"Oh, Cric you need to be careful. One day you'll really hurt yourself." Cricket rolls her eyes as she looks at Miranda.

"I'm fine, Miranda. Look, Daryl-

"Daryl?!" Cricket realizes her mistake and sighs.

"It's nothing-

"Oh no, don't pull a move like mentioning Dixon and expect me to forget it. What about Daryl?" She asks.

"He showed up when I cut myself. He cleaned it and wrapped it for me."

"He would never for anybody else." Miranda says as she shakes her head. "The boy got it in for you."

"Miranda." Cricket blushes. "Daryl doesn't like me like that."

"Oh, please chica, I've seen how he looked at you. He totally into you." Cricket rolls her eyes. "I mean it, you're always the one who he gives the meat to when he comes back, the one who he talks to, the one who he is polite to, the one who he helps out with." Cricket shakes her head.

"Miranda-

"I'm just saying my opinion, darling. You don't have to listen, but it's the end of the world now. No ones going to judge who you wish to spend your nights with and Daryl Dixon," Miranda whistles. "He would defiantly be good during the nights."

"Miranda!" Cricket laughs.

"He got the muscles and the power-

"Oh my god." Cricket giggles. "What has gotten into you."

"It's the heat." Miranda fans herself. "Where's my man when I need him." Cricket laughs and shakes her head.

"He's going to be happy to come back." Cricket says as she stands up. "As much as I love our talks, Anda, I think I'm going to go have a chat with the innocent friend of ours, Amy." Miranda smiles.

"Go right ahead darling."

"This is when I wish almost all of my friends didn't go on a supply run."

"They'll be back." Miranda promises.

"I know, I just miss my guys." Morales, Miranda's husband, is one of the closest guy friend Cricket has, along with Glenn and T-Dog.

"I miss them too, but I'm sure they'll bring something yummy back or your man Dixon will." Cricket cringes at the thought. "The good looking Dixon, not the sexist pig."

"Yeah, sure." Cricket says with a shake of her head. "I'm going to go and see if they need me back up there. You good hear on your own?" Cricket asks.

"Yeah, just two screaming kids with me, I'll be fine." Cricket laughs.

"You're a good mother." She says. "Most wouldn't be able to handle this for so long."

"Thank you, Cricket. It means a lot." Cricket smiles before heading back up the hill to the main camp.

Cricket walks over to the rv and looks up at her father and smiles. "Hey, Dad."

"Hey, Cricket. Need anything?"

"I was going to ask you that very thing. You've been up there awhile. Want any water or food?"

"Nah, I'm fine darling. I'll come down when I need something."

"If you're sure." Cricket says in a questioning voice.

"I am." Dale nods.

"Okay, holler if you need something." She makes her way back towards where Amy sat cooking some lunch. "Need help?"

"Would love some." Amy smiles. "Hand me that water." Cricket hands over the bottle of water and Amy takes the camp off and pours some in the pan. "I'm going to try and make something good."

"Good luck with that." Cricket laughs, knowing all too well how Amy's experiments go. "I'm going to go and collect more firewood." She tells her before standing and heading back into the woods. She gathers sticks and twigs, piling them into her arms as she moves along the woods. They haven't seen a walker since they got here, which is something they all can be thankful for.

Cricket just hopes it stays that way. The camp can't handle an attack, not with the limited guns and ammo. The best weapons they got are pistols and those can only do so much, if you don't add in the limited rounds.

Cricket tries to think about it as she gets as much wood she can within a few hours. When she comes back to camp she finds the supply group still aren't back. They should have been back by now and Cricket can already see Amy pacing in worry. Cricket's dad was busy trying to fix his rv with Jim, but Cricket knows that something is wrong.

"It's late. They should've been back by now." Amy says once Cricket drops the wood by the fire.

"Worrying won't make it better." Dale says from where he was crouched down with his hands in the rv's front.

"Don't worry, Amy, they'll be back." Cricket says, trying to comfort the teen.

"They never are out this late. It's already late noon."

"I know, but they'll be back. Andrea promised." Cricket says as she places a hand on Amy's shoulder. She didn't like Andrea, but Andrea was a good sister if not a good person. "She'll make it back."

"Thank you, Cricket." Amy says before hugging her. "I don't know what I would do without you."

"You'd be pulling your hair out." Cricket smiles and hugs her back. "You're not good with stress."

"Hello, base camp!" Amy pulls away as she hears T-Dog's voice over the radio. "Can anybody out there hear me." Amy quickly pulls away from Cricket and looks up to where the cb was resting on the roof of the rv. "Base camp, this is T-Dog. Anybody hear me?" Dale climbs up and goes and answers.

"Hello. Hello." Dale says into it. "Reception's bad on this end." Dale says into it. "Repeat. Repeat."

"Shane, is that you?"

"Is that them?" Lori asks as she looks up at Dale.

"We're in some deep shit." T-Dog says on the radio. "We're trapped in the department store."

"He said they're trapped?" Shane asks as Amy looks at Cricket with fear in her eyes.

"There are geeks all over the place. Hundreds of 'em. We're surrounded."

"T-Dog, repeat that last part. Repeat." Dale orders into the radio. The radio goes static and Cricket pulls Amy into her arms, trying to comfort the young girl.

"He said the department store." Lori says.

"I heard it too." Dale says.

"Shane?"

"No way." Shane says right away to her unspoken question. "We do not go after them. We do not risk the rest of the group."

"Shane, our best people are out there." Cricket says.

"Y'all know that." Shane says as he glares at Cricket.

"So we're just gonna to leave her there?" Amy asks with a scared voice.

Look, Amy, I know that this is not easy-

"Easy, Shane it's her sister, Miranda's husband, the father to her child, a poor kid, many of our people." Cricket says.

"She volunteered to go," Amy says. "To help the rest of us."

"I know, and she knew the risks, right?" Shane says as he walks up to her. "See, if she's trapped, she's gone." Amy looks at him in shock. "So we just have to deal with that. There's nothing we can do."

"She's my sister, you son of a bitch." Amy says as she walks away.

"You a real bastard." Cricket says in a cold voice before she follows after Amy. "And if you all agree with him then you are too."

Cricket finds Amy crying in her tent, which causes her heart to break. "Oh, Amy." Cricket sighs and crawls into the tent. "I'm sorry. I know you want to go and help your sister." She lays down beside the crying Amy and pulls her into her arms. "All we can do is hope they get back." She says as she runs her fingers through Amy's hair, trying to get her calm. "It'll be okay."

"You heard Shane, she's as good as gone."

"Shane's a dick who thinks he can rule everything. He doesn't know shit. You're sister is still alive and she'll come back to us. We just got to hope for the best and pray she makes it back alive."

"And if she doesn't? Who'll look after me?"

"Amy, you don't need anyone to look after you. You are a strong and brave young girl. You will make it far in this world if you just learn how to survive." Cricket tells her.

"But-

"Amy, I will make sure nothing happens to you, but you don't need anyone. You are strong on your own. I promise nothing bad will happen."

"I hope so." She sniffles.

"Just close your eyes. When you wake up, Andrea will be back here, being the one to hold you." Amy nods and close her eyes.

Cricket lays with Amy for an hour, just holding her as she sleeps. She was just starting to drift off when she heard the sound of a car alarm. "Cricket?" Amy groans as she opens her eyes.

"Get up." Cricket says as she pulls away from Amy and stands up. "It could be them." She opens the tent. "It's a car alarm, not one of ours. It could be them, come on." Amy kicks the sleeping bag away from her and scurries out.

"Please be them." She begs as the two girls head up the hill towards the other.

"Talk to me, Dale!" Shane yells as Dale looks through his binoculars.

"Can't tell yet!" Dale calls down.

"Let him get a good look at it." Cricket says as she waits for her dad to tell them what is up.

"Is it them? Are they back?" Amy asks.

"I'll be damned."

"What is it Dad? Is it them?" Cricket asks.

"What is it?" Amy asks.

"Stolen car is my guess." Dale yells down to them. They all wait until they see a red sports car pulling up into their camp. "Holy crap turn that thing off!" Dale says as Glenn gets out of the car.

"I don't know how!" Glenn yells up at him with a huge grin on his face.

"Pop the hood, please. Pop the hood." Shane says.

"My sister Andrea-

"Pop the damn hood, please!" Shane yells over Amy.

"What? Okay okay. Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah!" Glenn says.

"Is she okay! Is she alright!" Amy demands. "Did she get out of the city!"

"Amy, hold on, give them space. Let them turn the alarm off first." Cricket tells her, pulling her away from the car, trying to get her to relax a little.

"Yeah, yeah! She's okay!" Glenn yells at Amy.

"Is she coming back!" Amy yells.

"Yes!" The alarm shuts off right after Glenn's yell.

"Why isn't she with you?" Amy asks. "Where is she? Is she okay?"

"Yes!" Glenn yells.

"Amy, breath. She's okay. Give Glenn so breathing room, he'll tell you how she is." Cricket says.

"Yeah, fine. Everybody is. Well, Merle not so much." Glen tells them all.

"Are you crazy, driving this wailing bastard up here? Are you trying to draw every walker for miles?"

"I think we're okay." Dale says as he looks around.

"You call being stupid, okay?" Shane snaps.

"Hey, lay off." Cricket snaps back.

"Well, the alarm was echoing all over these hills. Hard to pinpoint the source." Dale argues. "I'm not arguing. I'm just saying." He turns to Glenn. "It wouldn't hurt you to think things through a little more carefully next time, would it?"

"Sorry." Glenn says. "Got a cool car." Glenn smiles. Dale just nods as a van pulls up to the camp.

"Amy!" Andrea says as she got out of the van.

"Told you she'd be okay." Cricket smiles at Amy.

"Andrea!" Amy cries as she runs over to her. Cricket smiles as the two hug one another.

"Oh!" Andrea cries.

"Oh my god!" Amy cries happily. "You scared the shit out of me."

"Papi! Daddy!" Louis Morales cries as he runs to his father.

"Hey!" Morales says as he picks his kids and hugs them tightly in his arms. "I told you I'd be back didn't I?" Miranda smiles at Cricket as she walks off with her family. Cricket heart breaks as she sees Carl crying. The poor boy can't rejoice like the others, he has no one else he can hug. His dad is gone.

"You're a welcoming sight." Dale says with a laugh. Morales laughs and hugs Dale. "I thought we had lost you folks for sure."

"How'd you all get out there, anyways?" Shane asks.

"New guy- he got us out." Glenn smiles.

"New guy?" Shane asks.

"Yeah, crazy vato just got into town. Hey, helicopter boy! Come say hello!" Morales calls as a man gets out of the van. He's dressed in a sheriff outfit and he looks exhausted. "The guy's a cop like you." A look of shock comes over Shane and the man's face as they looks at each other.

"Oh my god." The man says in shock.

"Dad! Dad!" The man starts forward and Carl pushes his was through the crowd, running full speed forward to the man. Lori runs after him and Carl runs right into the man's arms.

"Carl." The man says as he hugs him tightly, crying at the very sight of him. Cricket smiles as she seems them, she felt crying just at seeing them together. "Oh." He stands up, holding Carl in his arms and walks up to the shock Lori and taking her in his arms. Everyone watches in amazement as they see the family rejoice together. Finally everything seems right in the camp.


	5. Chapter 3

"Disoriented." Rick says, explaining to the camp what it was like to wake up in such a strange way. "I guess that comes closest. Disoriented. Fear, confusion- all those things but... Disoriented comes closest.

"Words can be meager things." Dale says from where he sat, Cricket in his arms. "Sometimes they fall short." Dale puts his cup down and kisses Cricket's head.

"I felt like I've been ripped out of my life and put somewhere else." Rick says as he frowns. "For I while I thought I was trapped in some coma dream, something I might not wake up from ever."

"Mom said you died." Carl says.

"She had every reason to believe that." Rick says as he smiles down at his son. "Don't you ever doubt it."

"When things started to get really bad, they told me at the hospital that they were gonna medevac you and the other patients to Atlanta, and it never happened." Lori says to Rick.

"Well, I'm not surprised after Atlanta fell."

"Yeah."

"And from the look of that hospital, it got overrun."

"Yeah, looks don't deceive. I barely got them out, you know?" Shane finally says.

"I can't tell you how grateful I am to you, Shane. I can't begin to express it."

"There goes those words falling short again." Dale says, causing Cricket to smile at her father. "Paltry things." Cricket looks over at the sound of a log hitting the fire and sees the drunk, Ed putting more logs onto the fire.

"Hey, Ed, you want to rethink that log?" Shane asks.

"It's cold, man." Ed says as he leans back, not even caring what Shane says. Cricket frown as she looks over at him.

"The cold doesn't change the rules, does it?" Shane asks. "Keep our fires low, just embers, so we can't be seen from a distance, right?"

"I said it's cold." Cricket looks up at her father worried. She didn't like Ed, he always gave her the creeps. "You should mind your own business for once." Shane gets up, causing the group to grow worried as they watch Shane walk over to the Peletier family.

"Hey Ed." Shane says as he walks over to Ed, standing in front of him. "Are you sure you want to have this conversation, man?"

"Go on. Pull the damn thing out. Go on!" Ed says to his wife. Cricket shakes her head, she hates how the man treats her. Carol was a kind older woman and Ed is just horrible.

"Christ." Shane says, pulling the log out for Carol in order for her not to herself. He puts the log out as Carol takes her seat again. "Hey, Carol, Sophia, how are y'all this evening?" He asks them.

"Fine. We're just fine." Carol says, not wanting to start anything with Ed.

"Okay." Shane says to them with a nod of his head.

"I'm sorry about the fire." Carol says.

"No no no no no." Shane says. "No apologies needed. Y'all have a good night, okay?"

"Thank you." Carol whispers with a nod.

"I appreciate the cooperation." Shane says as he stands and makes his way back to the main fire where everyone else sits.

"Have you given thought to Daryl Dixon? Or even Nate?" Dale asks. "He won't be happy to hear his brother was left behind, neither will Nathaniel."

"I'll tell him. I dropped the key. It's on me." T-Dog say.

"I cuffed him. That makes it mine." Rick speaks up.

"Guys, it's not a competition." Glenn pitches in. "I don't mean to bring race into it this, but it might sound better coming from a white guy."

"I did what I did. Hell if I'm gonna hide it." T-Dog says.

"We could lie." Amy says.

"It'll just make it worst." Cricket says. "Daryl will know if we lie and he will be even more angry."

"Cricket's right, we tell the truth." Andrea says. "Merle was out of control. Something had to be done or he'd have gotten us killed. Your husband did what was necessary." Andrea looks at Lori as she speaks the last part. "And if Merle got left behind, it's nobody's fault, but Merle's."

"That will only make Daryl kill you." They all looked at Cricket. "I agree with telling him the truth, but to say it was Merle's fault, Daryl will be very angry and dealing with him when he is angry will not be pleasant, especially with his son around."

"Cricket's right, that's what we tell Daryl? I don't see a rational discussion to be had from that, do you?" Dale asks, causing Andrea to shake his head. "Word to the wise, Cricket is very right. We're gonna have our hands full when they get back from their hunt."

"I was scared and I ran." T-Dog says. "I'm not ashamed of it."

"We were all scared. We all ran. What's your point?"

"I stopped long enough to chain that door. Staircase is narrow. Maybe half a dozen geeks can squeeze against it at any one time. It's not enough to break through that- not that chain, not that padlock. My point-" He looks at Andrea. "Dixon's alive and he's still up there, handcuffed to that roof. That's on us." T-Dog stands and heads off to his tent.

Cricket frowns and soon everyone heads to bed. Cricket climbs into the rv after her father and stands in the doorway of their room. "Dad?"

"Yes?" He asks as he takes his boots off.

"We shouldn't leave Dixon on the roof. We should go back for him."

"Cricket-

"I'm not saying me exactly, but we can't just leave a man to die on the roof, from starvation and dehydration."

"Annabell, darling, it's late. We can have this discussion in the morning, hear what the others think."

"Dixon's going to want to go back."

"Annabell, please, I understand your great morals, but we need to get some sleep. No use staying up all night talking about this, it won't save Merle from spending the night on the roof." Cricket sighs and kicks her shoes off.

"Okay papa." She says before climbing into the bed with him. The bed is large enough for the both of them, they lay on opposite ends just to make it comfortable and Cricket quickly closes her eyes. The rv is cold, but it beats laying on the hard ground.

She closes her eyes and drifts off to sleep.

Cricket wakes up early like usual and dresses quickly. She changes into jeans, a grey long sleeves shirt, and slips her boots on. She places her dark denim baseball cap on, she got it when she was little, it has a small white cricket on the front of it with lucky written in white letters on the side of the hat.

Cricket opens the door of the rv and walks out to the cold fresh air. She gets started on breakfast quickly and does the rest of her routine before everyone wakes up. Everyone's main concern once they wake up is to take apart Glenn's car and scrap it for parts. The others go and do their normal chores, which is laundry and washing dishes.

Cricket walks over to see Glenn pouting. "Don't pout, it makes you look sad." Glenn laughs as he looks over at her.

"I am sad, my car." He motions to the car, causing Cricket to smile.

"Don't be so sad, it's just a car."

"It was not just a car. You should have ridin' in it. It's... It's amazing." Cricket laughs and looks over at Glenn.

"You sound look a guy who just got his first orgasm." Glenn glares at Cricket.

"Shut up." The two smile at each other and Cricket rests her head on his shoulder.

"Was powerful?" She asks, trying not to laugh.

"Cricket!" Glenn scolds, causing her to giggle.

"Okay okay... Just one more." He glares at her and she only smiles innocently. "How was her steering."

"Cricket I swear to-

"Alright, alright." She giggles. "I'm done." Glenn shakes his head at her.

"You have-

"Mom!" Glenn and Cricket look over to the source of the screaming.

"Mom! Dad!"

"It sounds like Sophia and Carl." Cricket says.

"Carl!" Lori screams, causing everyone to go into action. They grab any weapon they can get their hands on and runs through the woods.

"Dad!"

"Baby!" Lori screams.

"Mama! Mommy!" Sophia yells, causing Cricket's heart to break.

"Rick!" Glenn yells, throwing him a weapon as everyone runs through the woods.

"Carl!" Lori yells. "Carl! Baby!"

"Mom!" Cricket runs towards where Carl is and slides to the ground.

"Mommy!" Sophia yells as she looks over at Cricket.

"Are you two okay?" Cricket asks, her breathing heavy as she checks Sophia and Carl over for any bites. "Answer me, you two. Are you both okay?" They give timid nods.

"I'm okay, Cricket." Sophia says, her voice shaking.

"Nothing bit you? Nothing scratch you?" Lori asks as she takes over. Cricket stands up and steps back allowing the family to comfort the children.

"I never seen you run so fast."

"Never had to run so fast." Cricket says to Glenn.

"You did good." Dale says, giving his daughter a hug.

"Thanks." She says before following the others into the clearing. They all gather around and see a walker munching on a walker. They walk to it, trying to be quiet when suddenly Andrea gasps from behind them, alerting the presence of the walker. It stands up and goes for Rick. The semi circle of guys begin to take turns hitting it, trying to kill it. Cricket takes a deep breath to calm herself as she watches the men beat the walker. Her father steps forward and chops the head right off with an ax. The guys step back and look down at the walker, trying to regain their breaths. "It's the first one we had up here." Dale says as his daughter goes and stands by him. "They never come this far up the mountain."

"Well, they're running out of food in the city, that's what." Jim says, causing the guys to sigh. Branches break in the woods, causing the group to look over at the woods with worry. Everyone gets their weapons up, taking aim for whatever is the source of the noise. They scan the forest, waiting for any sign of it. They inch closer and closer until Daryl Dixon walks out of the woods with his cross bow in one hand and a string of squirrel in the other. Behind him is Nate, with his own string of squirrel and his recurve bow.

"Oh jesus." Shane says as he lowers his weapon upon seeing Daryl. Daryl pauses and looks at all the armed men before seeing the deer on the ground and the walk.

"Son of a bitch." He says, anger clear in his voice. The boy behind him frowns and shakes his head in annoyance. "That's my deer!" Daryl says as he walks out of the woods. Nate follows behind him, putting his recurve boy in the special slot on the side of his quiver, making it so he didn't have to carry it. "Look at it all gnawed on by this filthy, disease-bearing," Daryl begins to kick the walker in anger. "Motherless poxy bastard." Nate ignores his father and put the string of squirrel over his shoulder, heading past the others and up the hill. Rick followed his movement and goes to follow, but Shane shakes his head and looks at Daryl, causing Rick to nod.

"Calm down son, that's not helping." Cricket looks over at her father with a frown, knowing that pissing Daryl off would not be the best choice.

"What do you know about it, old man?" Cricket sighs as he starts over to them. "Why don't you take that stupid hat and go back on 'On Golden Pond'?"

"Daryl, knock it off." Cricket says, causing him to glance at her. It seems to calm him slightly and he takes a step back, going back over to his deer.

"I've been tracking this deer for miles." Daryl sighs. Rick glances over at Cricket, confusion in his eyes as he looks back at the now calm Daryl. "Gonna drag it back to camp," Daryl pulls out the bolts from the deer as he says this. "Cook us up some venison." He goes to the neck and frown. "What do you think? Do you think we can cut around this chewed up part right here?" He asks as he motions to the neck.

"It wouldn't be a smart idea, Daryl." Cricket says. Rick expects Daryl to snap at Cricket, but he doesn't. He looks at Cricket and shakes his head.

"That's a damn shame." Daryl sighs again. "Nate and I got some squirrels, about two dozen or so. That'll have to do." He says as he tightens his grim on the squirrel that hangs on his shoulder. He goes to head up the hill to camp when the walker head opens it's mouth.

"Oh god." Amy says in disgust.

"Come on, people. What the hell?" Daryl says as he aims his cross bow and fires it right into the walker's eye. He walks over and pulls the bolt out, wiping it free from goop on his jeans. "It gotta be the brain." He says to them as he steps back from the walker. "Don't y'all know nothing?" He says before heading up to camp. Cricket sighs and goes to follow, but Rick stops her and Shane.

"I think you should tell, Daryl. As long as your okay with it." She frowns and looks at up Rick confused.

"Rick-

"I want her to, Shane. Daryl doesn't seem to get mad with you around." Cricket looks where Daryl went off to and sighs.

"Okay, I'll try, but if he gets mad-

"We'll step in." Rick promises, causing her to nod and run off to catch up with Daryl.

"Merle!" Daryl calls, causing Nate, who sat by the Dixon camp to look up. He hasn't seen his uncle since he got into camp and something in the look of the other survivors told Nate something bad has happened. He had decided to let his dad handle it and now sat by his tent. "Merle! Get your ugly ass out here!" He calls as Cricket manages to catch up to him.

"Daryl?" She says cautiously.

"I got us some squirrel."

"Daryl, can we talk for a moment." Cricket asks, causing him to stop and look at her.

"What?"

"Um..." She looks down at her feet, she didn't want to do this, but Rick asked her to, so she gotta at least try. "It's about Merle." Daryl froze and looks at Cricket.

"What you mean?" Daryl asks.

"There..." She looks up at him. "There was a problem in Atlanta."

"Is he dead?" Cricket shakes her head.

"No... We don't think so."

"What you mean 'we don't think so'." He snaps, causing her to look at him worried. "He either is or he ain't." Daryl says.

"Look Daryl-" Cricket starts, hoping to calm Daryl down some.

"There's no easy way to say it, so I will." Cricket and Daryl turns to see Rick walk up.

"Who are you?" Daryl asks confused.

"Rick Grimes." Rick tells Daryl.

"Rick Grimes, you got something you want to tell me?"

"Your brother was a danger to us all, so I handcuffed him on a roof, hooked him to a piece of metal." Nate froze as he heard what Rick told his father. "He's still there."

"Hold on. Let me process this." Daryl says, his voice shaking slightly from both grief and anger. "You're saying you handcuffed my brother to a roof and you left him there?!"

"Yeah." Daryl glares at him, his face red with anger, he throws the squirrel at Rick, Cricket steps back, out of the line of fire as Rick dodges the attack. Daryl goes to attack Rick, but Shane pushes Daryl. Daryl pulls out a knife, causing Cricket's eyes to widen.

"Hey, watch the knife." T-dog says.

"Shit, dad." Nate sighs as he sees this from their tent. He places the squirrel down along with his quiver. Daryl goes to hit Rick, but Rick dodges very easily. Shane manages to grab Daryl and pull him to the ground in a choke hole.

"Okay. Okay." Shane says. Nate doesn't like this, this wasn't right. His uncle got left on some roof and now his dad was in a choke hold all because he was angry and Nate doesn't blame his father. He'd want to kill them too, hell he does want to kill them, but at the moment he has to worry about his dad.

"You best let me go!" Daryl yelled.

"Nah, I think it's best I don't." Cricket watches as Nate makes his way over, he walks slowly as if trying to process this situation.

"Choke hold's illegal."

"You can file a complaint."

"Get the fuck off him." Nate says as he walks over. Daryl looks over and sees his son standing there, anger clear on his face.

Shane glares at Nate. "How about you back to playing in the play ground, Natie." Nate's clenched his fist at Shane's words, but Shane doesn't notice as he looks down at Daryl. "Come on, man. We'll keep this up all day."

"I'd like to have a calm discussion on this topic." Rick says. "Do you think we can manage that?" Rick frowns and looks at Daryl, repeating himself. "Do you think we can manage that?"

"Hmm?" Shane asks as Daryl's face begin to grow red from lack of oxygen.

"Mmm. Yeah." Rick says. Shane lets Daryl go, Nate glaring at Shane. "What I did was not on a whim." Rick says once Daryl pants for air. "Your brother does not work and play well with others."

"It's not Rick's fault. I had the key. I dropped it." T-Dog says, staring at Daryl with both fear and nervousness.

"You couldn't pick it up." Daryl snarls.

"Well, I dropped it in a drain." Daryl snorts and shakes his head, trying to still get his breathing back in order.

"If it's supposed to make me feel better, it don't." Daryl says as he stands up.

"Well, maybe this will. Look, I chained the door to the roof so the geeks can't get at him-with a padlock."

"It gotta count for something." Rick says.

"Hell with all y'all! Just tell me where he is, so's that I can go get him." Daryl says.

"He'll show you. Isn't that right?" Lori says, causing Rick to look at her.

"I'm going back." Rick nods. Daryl stomps off as Nate looks at Shane. In less than a second Nate punches Shane, causing him to stumble back and people to stare at Nate in shock, Nate wasn't normally the violent type, but even he has a limit.

"Touch my dad again and you'll be good as dead." Nate says with anger in his eyes. "Best keep that in mind, bastard." Shane looks up at him, spitting blood out of his mouth before Nate stomped off after his father. Daryl glances over at Nate.

"Let me see." Daryl says motioning to Nate's hand. Nate sits down beside his father and Daryl looks at his knuckles. "Gotta bruise like hell, but you'll survive. You punch the correct way, so you didn't hurt your wrist." Daryl says with a nod. Nate nods and looks at the fire. Rick watches the father and son with curiosity. "Hey," Daryl says, but Nate doesn't look. "Kid, look at me." Nate looks up, causing Daryl to sigh. "We'll get him back, Nathaniel, promise." Nate nods and frowns.

"You okay?" Daryl shakes his head.

"You shouldn't worry about me kid, it's my job to worry about you." He says, wrapping an arm around his son, pulling him to his side and kissing the top of his head.

"I already lost mama, dad. I don't want to lose you to." Daryl closes his eyes and holds Nate closer to him.

"You won't." Daryl whispers. "I'm not going to go anywhere."

"You're into the city, though." Daryl looks down at Nate and sighs.

"I'm going to come back Nate, promise."

"You shouldn't make promises you can't keep."

"I'll keep this one." He says as he nudges Nate. "Now, hand me those squirrels." He says, causing Nate to nod and reach over, grabbing the second string of squirrel. Daryl pulls away from his son and begins to dress the squirrels, getting them ready for dinner.

"You mad at Cricket?" Daryl frowns and looks over at his son with a questioning look. "I mean, she was the one who told you about Merle first."

"I ain't mad at Cricket." Daryl says. "She done nothing wrong. It's those bastards who did."

"I like Cricket." Nate says as he helps his father out with dressing the squirrel. "She's nice to me." Daryl glances over at his son as he says this. "One of the few who are." Nate looks over at his dad. "So, don't go upsetting her. I like having her around." Daryl shakes his head as he looks back at the squirrel.

"What you mean?"

"You push people away, you always do. I just don't want you getting rid of Cricket because she's nice." Daryl looks over at Nate as he says this. "She..." He pauses and frowns. "She's like mama." Daryl sighs and looks down at the meat.

"I'm sure she ain't going anywhere." Nate nods and looks over at his dad.

"I hope so."

"Can you just tell me why? Why would you risk your life for a douche bag like Merle Dixon." Nate and Daryl look over as Rick and Shane head their way.

"Hey, chose your words more carefully." Daryl says as he sees the cut on Shane's lip, fighting back a smile knowing his son caused it.

"No, I did. Douche bag is what I meant." Nate glares at Shane as he goes back to his squirrel. "Merle Dixon the guy wouldn't give you a glass of water if you were dying of thirst."

"What he would or wouldn't do does't interest me. I can't let a man die of thirst- me." Shane shakes his head and Ricks moves to look Shane in the eyes. "Thirst and exposure. We left him like an animal caught in a trap. That's no way for anything to die, let alone a human being."

"You and Daryl, that's your big plan?" Lori asks. Nate goes to speak up, but Daryl hits his ankle with his foot.

"You ain't going." He says quietly, so only Nate hears.

"Dad-

"That's final, kid." Daryl orders. Rick looks at Glenn, causing his eyes to widen.

"Oh, come on." Glen sighs miserable.

"You know the way. You've been there before. In and out no problem. You said so yourself. It's not fair for me to ask- I know that." He says before looking back at Lori. "I know she would too."

"That's just great. Now you're gonna risk three men, huh?"

"I want Cricket to go." Rick says, causing everyone to look at the young woman.

"What?" She questions.

"She's not going." Dale says quickly.

"You're daughter is smart." Rick says. "I have that out quickly enough." He says as he steps forward. "And she can keep Daryl calm. We need that." Rick says, quiet enough so only himself, Shane, Cricket, and Dale hears.

"Now four men?" Shane questions with annoyance.

"Five." T-Dog says, causing the remaining Dixons to look over at him.

"My dad just gets better and better, don't it?" Daryl says.

"Hear him out, dad." Nate says.

"Nate's right, you see anybody else stepping up to save your brother's cracker ass?" T-Dog says. Daryl looks at Nate before looking at T-Dog.

"Why you?"

"You wouldn't even begin to understand. You don't speak my language." Dale sighs and looks at Cricket before looking at Shane.

"That's five." He says, finally settling for his daughter going with them.

"It's not just five. You're putting every single one of us at risks. Just know that, Rick." Shane says as he looks at Rick. "Come on, you saw that Walker. It was here. It was in camp. They're moving out the cities. They come back, we need every able body we've got. We need 'em here. We need 'em to protect camp."

"It seems to me what you really need most here are more guns." Rick nods.

"Right, the guns." Glenn chimes in.

"Wait. What guns?" Shane asks, causing the Dixons and Cricket to glance over.

"Six shotguns, two high powered rifles, over a dozen handguns. I cleaned out the cage back at the station before I left. I dropped the bag in Atlanta when I got swarmed. It's just sitting there on the street, waiting to be picked up."

"Ammo?"

"700 rounds, assorted."

"You went through hell to find us." Lori says. "You just got here and you're gonna turn around and leave?"

"Dad, I don't want you to go." Carl pitches in.

"To hell with the guns. Shane is right. Merle Dixon? He's not worth our lives, even with guns through in. Tell me. Make me understand."

"I owe a debt to a man I met and his little boy." Lori looks at Carl, as if thinking he was better than them. "Lori, if they hadn't taken me in, I'd have died. It's because of them that I make it back to you at all. They said they'd follow me to Atlanta. They'll walk into the same trap as I did if I don't warn them."

"What's stopping you?" Lori asks.

"The walkie-talkie, the one in the bag I dropped. He got the other one. Our plan was to connect when they got closer."

"These our walkies?"

"Yeah." Rick sighs.

"So use the CB. What's wrong with that?" Andrea asks.

"The CB's fine. It's the walkies that suck to crap, date back to the '70s, don't match any other bandwidth, not even the scanners in our cars."

"I need that bag." Rick says before walking over to Carl. "Okay?" Carl nods. "Alright." Cricket looks around camp and sighs. She was leaving the safety of the camp and heading to the city. She could die, but all she's hoping is to head back safely.


	6. Chapter 4

Cricket sits in the back of the van beside Daryl, T-Dog across from them. T-Dog didn't like Cricket sitting beside Daryl, but there was no way of talking her out of anything when she made up her mind. "You know, the last time we went to the city your three friends left and your other two stayed. Now you're with two of your friends and the other three are back at camp." T-Dog says causing Cricket to laugh.

"Yeah, my favorite friends are back at camp." T-Dog glares at Cricket. "I mean who wouldn't rather spend their day with Amy's innocence, Miranda's jokes, and Morales consent teasing." T-Dog laughs and shakes his head.

"You wouldn't." She smiles and leans her head back.

"No I wouldn't."

"He'd better be okay. That's my only word on the matter." Daryl says.

"I told you the geeks can't get at him." T-Dog says. "The only thing that's gonna get through that door is us."

"Relax, Daryl. No use getting all angry, he'll be find." Cricket says, closing her eyes and sighing. "Tomorrow's Amy's birthday." She says, causing T-Dog to look at her. "I told her I'd do something special, don't think she'd want me getting killed."

"You ain't gonna get killed." Daryl mumbles, surprising T-Dog.

"No, but wouldn't that be something special." Cricket smiles.

"It'd shut you up for once." Daryl grumbles, causing Cricket to hit his arm.

"Oh, shut up." T-Dog smiles as Daryl glances over at her.

"No, but seriously, if we have time I want to get her something."

"We-

"Dixon, while we go up to the roof and get your brother, Cricket can look around the store, see if there's anything good to take." T-Dog says causing Cricket to smile.

"Thanks, T." He nods at her as Daryl rolls his eyes.

"No problem." She smiles as the van came to a stop.

"We walk from here." Glenn says, causing T-Dog to stand up. Cricket holds her hand up, getting a smile from T-Dog. He goes to step forward, to take her hand and pull her up, but Daryl surprises them by being the one to pull up from the floor.

"Thanks, Daryl." She smiles before heading towards the doors and opening them up. "What you guys waiting for? Let's go." Daryl moves around her and jumps down and T-Dog jumps down after him. He places his hands on Cricket's hips and lowers to the ground. "Thank you very much T." She says before stepping out of his arms and following after Daryl.

The group walks into the department store, but before they got into far, Rick held up his hand to single them to stop. He points to the walker not far away from them and motions for Daryl to take it out. "Glenn said he'd stay down here with you until your found something for, Amy." T-Dog whispers in Cricket's ear, causing her to nod.

"Damn. You are one ugly skank." Daryl whispers as he fires the crossbow, hitting it right the eye.

The guys head upstairs and Cricket begins to look for something for Amy. "Amy likes mythological stuff, like Mermaids and unicorns. I bet Andrea already got her something, so I'm going to try to look for something Andrea wouldn't have gotten her." Cricket says to Glenn before looking through the things under the glass.

"We don't have much time." Glenn tells her, causing her to nod.

"I know." She frowns and looks through the different things before finding something. "Wow, this is cool." She holds up a charm bracelet. It had seven silver charms; a unicorn, a griffin, a mermaid, a Pegasus, a dragon, a fairy, and a phoenix hanging from the silver bracelet. "She's going to love it." She says as she puts it back into its box, closing it up and frowning. "But what am I going to wrap it with?"

"Here's a fancy bag for it." Glenn says, handing her a silver bag, the name of the store written in gold. "You can put it in this. She'll be okay with it." Cricket smiles and puts it in the bag.

"Can I put it in your backpack, so it doesn't get lost?" Glenn nods and turns around. She puts it in the front pocket, the smallest one, and zips it up. "Thanks Glenn." She says before looking towards the stares. "Let's go ahead up."

"Come on." Glenn says after a nod of agreement. The two started up the stairs when they heard yelling.

"No! No! No!"

"Oh no..." Cricket says as she realizes it's Daryl screaming in grief.

"You think..."

"I don't know. Come on." She pushes the door open and the two head out onto the roof to see the guys gathered around where Merle had been. When Glenn and Cricket walked over to see what was wrong they saw lots of blood, Dale's saw, but it too was covered in blood, and a severed hand laid next to a pair of bloody handcuffs, still hanging from the pipe. "Oh god." Cricket covers her mouth in shock.

Daryl yells and turns his crossbow onto T-Dog, while Rick puts the gun at Daryl's head. Rick looks at Cricket and nods to her. This is where she comes into play for the set up of this rescue crew. "Daryl, put the crossbow down, it isn't going to help anything." Cricket says as she forces his crossbow down. He glares at her, but he does as she asks. He stands there, staring at T-Dog for a long moment before finally speaking again.

"You got a do-rag or something?" He asks, causing everyone to look confused. T-Dog hands over a rag and Daryl walks away from them and to the severed hand. He wraps it up in a rag after putting his crossbow down. "I guess the saw blade was too dull for the handcuffs." Daryl tells them. "Ain't that a bitch." He sighs and stands up, holding the hand in the rag. He motions for Glenn to turn around so that he can put the hand inside the bag. He goes to put in the pocket Amy's present was in, when Cricket stops him.

"Put it in the bigger pocket, I don't want it on Amy's present." Daryl looks at Cricket and nods, closing the previous pocket and opening the requested one.

"He must have used a tourniquet- maybe his belt. Be much more blood if he didn't. Daryl follows the blood trail and comes across a door that the group hadn't know was there to begin with. They walked through the door and started down a flight of stairs. "Merle! You in here!"

"Daryl, there might be walkers down here, we can't risk yelling." Cricket tells Daryl, causing him to glance at her. He nods and they walked down to the lower level, entering an office like room. A walker stood in the room, it turns to face them just as Daryl shoots it. They walked down a hall with caution. The enter a room and see two walkers laying in a lounge.

"Had enough in him to take out these two sumbitches one handed. Toughest asshole I ever met, my brother." He says as he pulls back his cross bow to reload it. "Feed him a hammer, he'd crap out nails." Cricket cringes at the image it creates and shakes her head in disgust.

"Any man can pass out from blood loss, no matter how tough he is." Rick says. They continue through the building in search of Merle Dixon.

"Merle!" Daryl yells once more.

"Shh, remember we're not alone in here, Daryl." Cricket says as they enter another room, still following the trail of blood.

"Screw that. He could bleeding out. Rick said so himself." Cricket glares at Rick before looking at Daryl.

"Even if he hears you he won't call out if there's walkers around him, so being quiet won't hurt." She tells him, causing him to look at her, eyeing her over.

They walk into a kitchen of some sorts and sees a bloody belt sitting on a sink. There were four cans by it, which all were burning. A nasty smell fills the air as Cricket realizes what Merle did. "Oh god." She mumbles, covering her nose with her hand.

"What's that burned stuff?" Glenn asks, not understanding what had happened.

"It's skin. He cauterized the stump." Glenn makes a face that shows he wants to puke.

"Told you he was tough." Daryl says.

"Nobody can kill Merle but Merle.

"Don't take that on faith. He's lost a lot of blood."

"Yeah?" Daryl says. "Didn't stop him from busting out of this death trap." They over and see a window busted open.

"He left the building?" Glenn asks in surprise. "Why the hell would he do that?"

"Why wouldn't he? He's out there alone as far as he knows, doing what he's got to do. Surviving." He says as he walks out of the room.

"You call that surviving?" T-Dog questions. "Just wandering out in the streets, maybe passing out? What are his odds out there."

"No worse than being handcuffed and left to rot by you sorry pricks. You couldn't kill him." Daryl says as he turns to Rick. "Ain't so worried about some dumb dead bastard."

"What about 1,000 dumb dead bastards?" Rick asks. "Different story?"

"Why don't you take a tally?"

"Daryl, Rick, this isn't helping." Cricket says.

"Do what you want. I'm gonna go get him."

"Daryl wait." Cricket says, grabbing Daryl's arm, stopping him from leaving. His eyes falls to her small petite hands holding his arm. Neither move, shocked by what Cricket just did.

"I don't blame you." Rick says, causing Daryl to look at Rick. "He's family, I get that. I went through hell to find mine. I know exactly how you feel." Daryl frowns as he stares at Rick. "He can't get far with that injury. We could help you check a few blocks around, but only if we keep a level head." Rick says.

"I could do that." Daryl agrees. Rick looks at T-dog, but he shook his head.

"Only if we get those guns first. I'm not strolling the streets of Atlanta with just my good intentions, okay?" Daryl nods and the group heads back out. Daryl eyes move back to his arm, where Cricket still holds onto.

"S-Sorry." Cricket says, quietly as she takes her hands off him. He looks at her for a moment and frowns.

"Let's go." He says before following after the others. Cricket lets out a heavy breath before following after them.

Nate sat up in a tree, he had been up there since his father left, he had finish dressing the squirrels hours ago and now he was just sitting up there, thinking. He was worried about his dad, but he was even more worried about Cricket. Cricket had always been good to him. Gave him breakfast every morning, asked him how he was doing, hell she even did his laundry. She was like another mother for him and he couldn't loose another mother.

He knows his dad can take care of himself, but Cricket... He was worried about Cricket. "Hey, Nate?" Nate sighs and looks down below him to see Amy standing there, looking up at him.

"What?" He asks.

"Do you know how to get fish ready for dinner? You know, descale them or whatever."

"Yeah, why?" He asks, looking down at her with a raised eyebrow.

"Andrea and I caught a lot of them, but no one knows how to get it ready to eat. Could you help us out, please?" Nate sighs. He had been laying with his back to the trunk of the tree, his legs spread out on the branch, but now he moves and lets his feet hang from the branch as he sits on the branch.

"Fine." He says before climbing down. He drops to the ground and dusts himself off.

"Thank you." She says as she leads him to the main fire, where the fish laid untouched. Nate sits down and pulls his knife out. "Could... Could you show me how to do it?" Amy asks.

"Why?" He asks as he flips his knife over, so that the blade was in his hand and the handle was pointing out.

"Because I don't want to have to depend on people anymore. I want to be able to care for myself. Will you show me or not?" Nate sighs before nodding. "Why are you holding your knife like that?" She asks.

"My knife's too sharp. It'll cut into the fish and ruin it. You don't need anything sharp, I'm using my handle to descale it." He says as he begins to run the handle across the fish.

"Stop." Amy says, stopping his hand with hers.

"What are you doing?" He asks as she forces his hand open, letting the knife drop to the ground.

"You're cutting your hand by doing that." She whispers, a deep cut was already in his hand, blood running down his wrist. "I'll go and get bandages."

"I don't-

"I don't care what you think you don't need. I'm getting your hand fixed." Amy says as she got up. "I have a dull knife you can use instead." She says before heading off to the rv. Nate sighs and looks down at his bleeding hand. He knew he'd get yelled at later when his father came back. He always told Nate not to descale a fish like that, but he never listens.

Amy returns with a wet cloth, two dull knives, a needle, thread, and a bandage. "Let me see your hand.:

"Amy-

"Nathaniel." Nate winces at his full name before handing his hand over. Amy washes the blood away with the wet cloth. Nate winces in pain, causing Amy to look up at him. "Sorry."

"It's fine. My dad's gonna do a lot worse when he sees my hand."

"He doesn't improve of your descaling method either?" Nate smiles and shakes his head.

"Not really." He admits. Amy finishes washing his hand from blood before getting the needle and thread ready. "Do you know how do that?"

"Uh..."

"Let me see that before you make my hand worst." Nate says as he takes the needle and thread. He threads the needle and begins to stitch up his own hand. He winces in pain as he does so, Amy watches how he does it, determined to learn for future needs. Nate notices and stops stitching.

"What you doing?" She asks, looking up at him.

"Here." He takes her hand in his, putting the needle in her fingers, and helps her stitch his hand up. "You feel how I do it?" She nods and he lets go of her hand. "Do it yourself now, it's the only way you'll learn. That's how my dad teached me." She looks at him unsure. "Go on."

"Okay..." She says before she starts to stitch his hand up again. She pulls tightly, wanting the stitches to be tight, and when she finishes she looks at him. "Now what?"

"Break the thread. You can do that with a knife or your teeth." He says as he picks his knife up. "Here, be careful with it, it's sharp." Amy laughs.

"I know, it's how we got in this position." Nate smiles and Amy cuts the thread. She grabs the wrapping bandage and begins to wrap his hand up tightly, causing him to wince. "Sorry, it got to be tight."

"I know." He says as she tucks the bandage up.

"There, now we can go back to getting this fish ready." He takes the dull knife out of her hand and shows the right way of descaling the fish. Once he shows her how to do it, she starts her own fish. They descale every fish within a half of an hour, the two working quickly beside each other. "Um... now what?" Amy asks.

"We have to gut them." Amy makes a face at that, causing him to look at her.

"You don't have to help on this part if you don't want to."

"I want to learn." She says. "So, um, show me how." She says and he does so on the first fish. "Hey, Nate?" Nate glances over at her as she starts doing her own.

"What?"

"Did you dad teach you everything you knew?" She asks, causing him to nod.

"Yeah. He taught me all about fishing, hunting, tracking. The basic survival things." Nate says as he puts the finished fish in a bucket. "Once we finish these fish you need to wash it and cook it, that's all that's needed." She nods as she drops hers into the bucket.

"Sounds easy enough." Nate nods.

"That's the easiest part." Nate agrees. "That and cooking it." Amy giggles and smiles at Nate.

"You should talk more, you're actually fun to talk to." Nate smiles and looks over at her.

"Thanks."

"You are, Nate. You're a great guy, you know." He looks down at the fish as he finishes gutting it. "I mean it, Nate." She places a hand over his. "Shane's an ass, he doesn't care about anyone, but himself. He doesn't understand how great of an asset your father and you are." Nate looks over at her and she smiles. "I mean it." They stare at each other for a long moment before Amy leans over to him. Nate sits there perfectly still as her lips brush his.

"Amy!" Amy pulls away and looks over to see Andrea looking around camp for her. Amy turns back to face Nate, but he's already moving on to the next fish. "Amy!"

"I'll be right back." She says before starting over to her sister. Nate glances over at her retreating form before going back to his work. His heart was still racing in his chest, his hands shook with the nervousness he had just felt. He lets out a heavy breath and finishes his work on the fish. Once he was done with the fish he quickly made his way back to his tree. He needed to be alone. To think.

The group sits in another office room. "You're not doing this alone." Rick says to Glenn, who had talked about getting the guns himself.

"Even I think it's a bad idea and I don't even like you much."

"It's a good idea, okay, if you just hear me out." Glenn defended. "If we go out there in a group, we're slow, drawing attention. If I'm alone, I can move fast. Look." He moves the different objects on the map he drew on the ground. "That's the tank, five blocks from where we are now." He tells them, his hand on a large binder clip. He picks up a rolled up sticky note and put it in front of the binder clip. "That's the bag of guns. Here's the alley I dragged you into when we first met." Glen points to one of the six squares he drew on the ground.

"That's where Daryl, Cricket, and I will go."

"Why me?" Daryl asks, speaking what Cricket wanted to ask.

"Your crossbow is quieter than his gun and Cricket keeps you level headed, it's best if you two are together in that alley." He says, causing Daryl to glance at Cricket. He picks up the mini sticky note holder and places in the 'alley way'. "While Daryl waits here in the alley with Cricket, I run up the street, grab the bag."

"You got us elsewhere?" Rick asks.

"You and T-Dog, right." Glenn nods. "You'll be in this alley here." He says as he puts an eraser down.

"Two blocks away? Why?"

"I may not be able to come back the same way. Walkers might cut me off. If that happens, I won't back to Daryl and Cricket. I'll go forward instead, all the way around to that alley where you guys are. Whichever direction I go, I got you in both places to cover me. Afterwards, we'll all meet back here."

"Hey, kid, what'd you do before all this?" Daryl asks, as he looks over at the kid.

"Delivered pizzas. Why?" Daryl stares at him, half expecting him to say he was kidding, but when he didn't he looked at Glenn impressed.

"Nice work anyways." Cricket says with a smile before she stands up. "Let's put your plan into action now." She says and the guys nod, all standing up and following her out. Daryl, Glenn, and Cricket go there separate way from Rick and T-Dog. They climb down the latter that Glenn had went up to escape the walkers before.

Glenn hopes down and waits for the others. Daryl hopes down, but suddenly Cricket slips on a patch of blood on one of the rungs and falls. "Shit." Daryl catches her before she can hit the ground.

She stares at Daryl in shock. "Uh... thanks, Daryl." She says, breathing heavily. Daryl stares at her for a moment, still holding her in his arms, before realizing that he was and lowering her to the ground. She places a hand on his chest as she is placed onto her feet.

"Guys, that's sweet and romantic and all, but we really don't have time for that." Daryl cheeks turn a very faint color of pink, while Cricket blushes full force and glares at Glenn. They follow Glenn down the alley and hide behind two trashcans.

"You got some balls for a Chinaman." Daryl says as he reloads his cross bow.

"I'm Korean."

"Whatever." Glenn runs out of the alley and silence forms between Cricket and Daryl.

"Um... before..." Daryl glances at Cricket. "Thanks for catching me. You didn't have to."

"You wouldn't gotten hurt, can't have you getting hurt when we could use you." He says as he looks back down the alley. "After all you keep me in check." He mumbles sarcastically. She smiles and leans against the trash can, looking at Daryl.

"Why do you treat me different than the other guys?" Daryl looks over at her.

"I don't." Cricket looks over at him.

"Yeah you do." He looks over at her. "If you didn't then you would have ripped my hand off your arm earlier. You never would have let Rick touch you." Daryl scoffs at that, causing her to frown. She raises her hand and rests it on his shoulder, causing him to freeze. "See, you're still not pushing me away." Daryl looks over at her and she moves her hand to her chest. "Why?"

Daryl goes to answer, but the sound of footsteps stops him. He raises his crossbow, ready to kill whatever is coming near them. Cricket moves her hand off him and pulls out the knife she carries with her. Daryl swings out and aims the crossbow at the boy. "Whoa, don't shoot me! What do you want?" He asks.

"I'm looking for my brother. He's hurt real bad. You seen him?" Daryl asks.

"Ayudame!" The guy suddenly yells.

"Shut up!" Daryl yells. "You're gonna bring the geeks down on us. Answer me."

"Daryl, stop, now's not the time. Glenn is out there, if the walkers hear you two then he'll get hurt." Cricket says, placing a hand on his arm, trying to relax him, but it only makes him tense.

"Answer me."

"Daryl-

"Ayudame!"

"He's screaming for help, Daryl. You need to lower the crossbow. You're only making matters worst." Cricket says.

"You understand him?!"

"Miranda's been teaching me." She defends.

"Ayudame!" The boy screams once more.

"Look, we aren't going to hurt you, you need to stop screaming." She says she she forces Daryl's crossbow down.

"Cricket-

"Daryl, stop, you're making it worst." She says before looking at the boy. "Relax, we aren't going to hurt you, I won't let him."

"Ayudame!"

"Fuck this!" Daryl says as he pushes Cricket out of the way and hits the boy across the face with his crowssbow.

Cricket stumbles and falls back on the trash back, hitting her head on the cement wall as she falls down. "Shit." She cries, her vision blackens as Daryl wrestles the boy to the ground.

"Shut up. Shut up." Daryl hisses, ignoring Cricket for the moment. "Shut up." Two guys come running down the alley towards Daryl. "Shut up." He says, not hearing them until he was kicked off the boy. The second man grabs Cricket, wrapping his arm around her neck and dragging her out of the trash bags. The other man starts beating on Daryl as Glenn runs in. The second man sees and begins to tell the first man in Spanish.

Glenn tries to run, but the first man saw him. "That's it. That's the bag, vato. Take it! Take it!" The second cries. They knock Glenn to the ground, causing him to scream and the first man begins to grab the bag, the second man kicking Glenn, while still holding onto Cricket.

Daryl manages to get up and fire his crossbow, hitting the first man right in the ass. The man yells as a car pulls up. The injured man grabs Glenn and drags him to the car. "Get off me!" Glenn screams. "Get off me!"

"Cricket!" Daryl yells as the second man pushes her into the car. "Cricket!"

"Daryl! Daryl!" Glenn yells, Daryl tries to get up to do something, he can't fire his crossbow without reloading it and he has to stand up to do that, which leads him to being too slow.

"Come back here, you sumbitches! Cricket! Glenn!" Daryl yells, but it's no use they were gone.


	7. Chapter 5

Cricket wakes up and groans, holding her head, which was aching like crazy. Beside her was cute three chihuahuas in a bed. "Glad, you're awake." Cricket looks over and sees Glenn standing there.

"What happened?"

"Don't know about you, but I came into the alley and you were being held by this Spanish guy, another was beating Daryl, another laid on the ground crying in pain. Long story short they were after the guns too. They wanted them in order to protect the old people they have here." Cricket frowns and looks around to see a bunch of old people sitting around being cared for by a bunch of Hispanic people. "They just want the guns to protect their people. They made a deal with our group saying they'd hand us over for the guns and their third man, the one who had been laying on the ground in pain."

"But they're not hurting us, it's not like we can't just go."

"I know, but... I thought they could use them. Plus they did threaten to shoot us." Cricket sighs and rubs her head. "What happened to you? Do you remember, I didn't see them hit your head and they said they didn't."

"I tried to stop Daryl from shooting the kid, but he pushed me. He hit the kid with the crossbow, I hit my head on my head on the wall."

"Daryl pushed you?" Cricket sighs and looks over at him.

"He didn't mean it, it was the heat of the moment. I know he wouldn't do it if he was thinking clearly."

"Still, you have a nasty concussion because of that guy." Cricket sighs and nods.

"I know." She looks over as she saw a man breathing heavily. "Is he okay?" She asks, loud enough that the other men heard.

"Asthma attacked." One of the men say, causing her to frown.

"Help me up, Glenn."

"What?" Glenn asks surprised.

"I know how to handle asthma attacks. A girl at the camp I went to had them. She taught me how to help it in case she has an attack." She walks over to the man. "We don't need an inhaler for me to help him." They nod and gave her the space she needs. She crouches down in front of the men. "I know you don't know me, but you need to breath evenly, man." She says and grabs a straw. "Put this in your mouth." He does and his breathing goes through the straw. "There you go." The straw helps him even his breaths before the doors open and more of the men before comes in along with Cricket's and Glen's group.

"Alright. Alright. Nice and easy. Just breath. Just breath. Just let it out. Just breath." One of the Hispanic man says as he walks over to the man. "Thank you." The man says to Cricket, causing her to nod and step back. The man puts the inhaler in the man's mouth and helps him breath even more better.

"What the hell is this?" Rick asks.

"An asthma attack." Cricket says as she walks over to them. "I was helping him with that."

"You okay?" Rick asks Cricket, seeing the blood on her head. He goes and touches her head, causing her to wince.

"Yeah, I'm fine. I hit my head before." She tells Rick. Daryl gives a guilty look to her, but she ignores him, she was a little upset with him.

"Yeah, he couldn't get his breath all of a sudden." Glenn says, returning to the previous conversation.

"I thought you were being eaten by dogs, man." Cricket frowns and looks over at the dogs that sat in the room.

"Those? They're harmless. They were sleeping with me just earlier, before I woke up." She says. They all looked at the dogs and frown.

"Could I have a word with you?" Rick asks the leader, who nods and walks away with Rick. They had a quick conversation together before the group follows him into another room. "What about the rest of your crew?" Rick asks the man as he puts the guns down.

"The vatos trickle in to check on their parents, their grandparents. They see how things are and most decide to stay. It's a good thing too. We need the muscle. The people we've encountered since things fell apart, the worst kind- plunderers, the kind that take by force."

"That's not who we are." Rick says.

"How was I to know?"

"My people got attacked and you show with Miguel hostage, appearances."

"Guess the world changed." T-Dog says.

"No." The world says. "It's the same as it ever was. The weak get taken. So we do what we can here. The vatos work on those cars, talk about getting the old people out of the city. But most can't even get to the bathroom by themselves, so that's just a dream. Still, it keeps the crew busy and that's worth something. So we barred all the windows, welded all the doors shut except for one entrance. The vatos, they go out, scavenge what they can to keep us going. we watch the perimeter night and day and we wait. The people here, they all look to me now. I don't even know why."

"Because they can." Rick says to him. Rick hands him his gun a long with a few others before he has the group head back out.

"Admit it, you only came back to Atlanta for the hat." Glenn says as they walk down the road, causing Cricket to smile.

"Don't tell anybody." Rick smiles.

"You given away half our guns and ammo." Daryl says.

"Not nearly half." Rick corrects quickly

"For what? Bunch of old farts are gonna die off momentarily anyhow?"

"We all are gonna die one day, Daryl." Cricket says coldly as she pushes past him.

"Seriously, how long you think they got?" Daryl asks, eyeing Cricket over, not understanding her attitude.

"Cricket's right. How long do any of us?" Rick asks as he looks at Daryl.

"Oh my god." Cricket stood frozen as she saw their van was gone.

"Where the hell's our van?" Daryl demands.

"We left it right there. Who would take it?"

"Merle." Cricket says, anger clear in her voice.

"He's gonna be taking some vengeance back to camp." Daryl warns.

"Best hurry then." Cricket manages to say.

"You gonna join us or what?" Nate looks down from his tree to see Amy there.

"Rather not."

"Nate, you must be starving. You haven't eaten since breakfast."

"Amy, I'm fi-

"Please, Nate. I want you to join us... think of it as an early birthday present to me." Nate looks down at her in surprise. "Tomorrow's my birthday. I want you to come sit with us for dinner. Please?" Nate sighs before nodding.

"Fine." He grumbles as he climbs down. "I'll eat with you guys."

"Thank you." She says as he jumps down. "Come on." She takes his hand and leads him over to the fire where people already sat. She made him come with her and sit with her by the fire. Andrea eyes them over from where she sits by Amy, but Amy ignores her and hands Nate a plate of food.

"Glad you could join us, kid." Dale manages to say. "Amy says you were the one who prepared the fish. If it wasn't for you then we wouldn't be able to eat this wonderful meal." Nate glances at him as he says this.

"I was just doing what I always do." He says quietly as he takes a bite of the fish. Amy smiles and takes a bite of her own fish.

"Pass the fish please." Sophia says to her mother.

"Here you go." Carol says, handing the fish off to her.

"Man o man, that's good." Shane says before sighing. "Whew. I miss this."

"Boy, what happened to your hand." The group eyes feel to Nate's bandaged hand.

"There's a right way and wrong way to descale a fish." Nate says as he looks up. "I normally do it the wrong way, drives my dad nuts. I just my hand open with my knife." He says, causing Amy to nod.

"Yeah, I stitched it up."

"You, stitched his hand?" Andrea asks surprised. "How'd you learn to do that?"

"Nate showed me how." Dale raises an eyebrow.

"You showed her how to stitch open your own hand?" Nate shrugs.

"Done worst."

"You're one tough kid."

"I've got to ask you, man. It's been driving me crazy." Morales says to Dale.

"What?" Dale asks.

"That watch."

"What's wrong with my watch?"

"I see you every day, the same time, winding that thing like a village priest saying mass."

"I wondered this myself." Jacqui says.

"I'm missing the point."

"Unless I've misread the signs, the world seems to have come to an end. At least hit a speed bump for a good long while." Jacqui says.

"But there's you ever day winding that stupid watch." Morales adds.

"Time- It's important to keep track, isn't it?" Dale asks. "The days at least." He looks to Andrea. "Don't you think, Andrea? Back me up here." He chuckles, but she shakes her head with a smile and drinks her beer. "I like- I like what, um, a father said to son when he gave him a watch that had been handed down through generations. He said, 'I give you the mausoleum of all hope and desire, which will fit your individual needs no better than it did mine or my father's before me; I give it to you not that you may remember time, but that you may forget it for a moment now and then and not spend all of your breath trying to conquer it.'" Nate chuckles and shakes his head. "What?"

"That's stupid." Amy laughs.

"You are so weird." She says to Dale. Dale chuckles as everyone laughs at the two of them.

"It's not me. It's Faulkner, William Faulkner. Maybe my bad paraphrasing." Everyone smiles as Amy stands up.

"Where are you going?" Andrea asks.

"I have to pee. Jeez, you try to be discreet around here." Everyone laughs as Nate stands. "What are you doing?" She asks alarmed. He glances at him.

"You just got annoyed with Andrea and now you're doing it?" Everyone laughs and Amy blushes.

"Sorry." She giggles as he walks over and picks up an arrow and his bow.

"You're taking your bow and an arrow to piss?" Shane asks.

"Never can be to careful." Nate argues.

"Boy, you're paranoid." Morales chuckles, causing Nate to laugh.

"We're out of toilet paper?" Amy says, causing Nate to look over at her. He sees a walker, ready to take a bite out of her, he lifts his bow and takes aim.

"Nathaniel, what the hell you doing?" Dale asks as he sees what he think is Amy getting aimed at by Nate's arrow.

"Are you nuts?" But Nate fires anyways, ignoring Andrea's words and the walker fell dead to the floor.

"What were you saying about me being paranoid?" He asks as he looks over at them.

"Oh my god." Amy says as she stumbles back. "Thank you." She says as she hugs him.

"Uh..." He says, startled by her sudden hug. "I-it's okay." He says as Dale smiles at the pair of them. "It wasn't-

"It was everything." Amy says as she pulls back and pushes her lips onto his. His eyes widen, his bow falling to the ground before he closes his eyes and wraps his arms around Amy. He kisses her back, his fingers entangling themselves in her hair as hers did the same to his.

Walkers begin to come out of the wood works making everyone's eyes widen. "You two, now is not the time to suck faces, there's walkers everywhere." Jacqui says.

"Hey, quick shot, how quick can you shoot?" Morales asks as Nate pulls away from Amy, quickly grabbing his bow and an arrow, he took aim and fired, the walker fell dead in seconds.

"Is that fast enough?"

"Hell yes." Jacqui says as the group pick up weapons. The walkers begin to munch on people, Shane fired as quick as he could as Nate pulled his knife out.

"Take this, stab any goddamn walker that comes your way." He says as he hands it to Amy.

"I can't-

"You said you wanted to stop depending on everyone, then stop depending and start defending." She takes the knife from him. "Don't let them bite or scratch you, and don't let them get close. They're slower than us, so move fast and knock them down." He says before he goes and fires an arrow at a walker behind Morales, saving him from getting bit.

"Thanks quick shot." The man says with a nod. People fired and hit the walkers with everything they got, while the parents took their kids and ran for safety.

Nate shot most of them, trying to kill as many as he could, but before long it started to catch up on him, he ran out of arrows. "Fuck!" He says before reaching for where his knife was, before remembering Amy had it. "Fuck!"

"Nate!" Amy screams as she sees him backing up, there were at least seven, all surrounding him. He backs up and trips over a dead walker, falling to his ass as the walkers grew closer.

"Fuck." He whispers, tears of fear filling his eyes as his hand grips the dogtags around his neck. "Mama." He whimpers, hoping that someone helps him, but everyone was dealing with their own lives and Amy couldn't kill enough walkers to get to him.

"Nate!" Amy screams as the walkers reached him.

"Dad." Nate whispers, tears rolling down his face. Where was his dad when Nate needed him most, he promised to always be there, but Nate was going to die. Nate closes his eyes, not wanting to see himself die.

"Nathaniel!" Daryl yells, firing a bolt and killing the closest walker to him. Rick hands Daryl a gun,

"Protect your boy, I'll protect mine." Rick says before running to where his family and Shane was. Daryl cocked the gun and fired at the walkers that surrounded his baby boy. Daryl pushed his way through the crowd, firing walker one by one. Once Daryl reached Nate, Nate scrambled to his feet.

"Daddy!" Daryl drops his gun and pulls Nate into his arms.

"Natie, it's okay. It's okay, baby boy. Daddy got you." Daryl whispers, pulling Nate into his arms and rocking him. "It's okay, daddy's here. I got you." Nate held onto his father as tight as he could, tears rolling down his face. "I'm not going anywhere, I got you."

"I was so scared." Nate whispers, admitting to it even though Dixons never admit to fear. "I thought I was going to die." Daryl fights back tears as he kisses his son's temple.

"I would never let that happen, baby boy." He whispers as he kisses Nate's head over and over again. "Never." Rick looks over and watches as Daryl comforts his son. "You're okay, buddy. I got you." Rick smiles, glad to see a soft side of Daryl.

The walkers had fallen by this point and many people were morning. Amy sees Nate and goes to go to him, but Andrea stops her. "Don't. He needs his dad, Amy. Leave him be." She says, everyone looks over at the Dixon boy, who had always seemed so tough now reminding everyone that he's still a little kid, still able to be afraid.


	8. Chapter 6

By morning Nate was back to his normal self. He no longer was crying and shaking, but helping his father move the dead ones. "Nate." Both Daryl and Nate look over as Amy walked up to them. "Here's your knife back." She says, handing the knife over to him. "Thank you... for last night, saving me, giving my your knife,-"

"Your welcome." He takes the knife back and frowns. "Here, take this one." He says as he hands her the knife he'd been using all morning. He always had an extra one, this one wasn't his mother's. The one Amy had used was his mother's, she had given it to him on his first hunt and he knew he couldn't give it to Amy, but the extra one he could.

"I couldn't-

"Better you have a sort of weapon on you, just in case." He says, holding it out to her.

"Thank you." She says, taking the knife from his wounded hand. Daryl frowns as he sees the wrapped hand.

"What the hell?!" He grabs Nate's hand.

"Oh, shit, dad." He hisses in pain at his father's rough touch.

"Did you get bit? Scratched?" Daryl demands as he unwraps the bandage.

"What? No?! I cut myself when I was helping Amy descale the fish." Daryl pauses and looks at the wound before looking at his son.

"Descaling fish?" Nate nods and receives a hit to the head. "Boy, how many times did I tell you to never descale a fish with the back of your knife."

"Ow, sorry I-

"You always end up cutting yourself like that." He shakes his head. "Who did the stitching?"

"I did, sir." Amy tells him. "Nate showed me how. I'm sorry if I got Nate in trouble." Daryl shakes his head.

"Nate got Nate in trouble." He says before taking Nate's knife.

"Dad-

"You'll get this back when I say so." He says, stuffing the knife into his boot with a shake of his head. "You know better, Nate." He says before walking off and grabbing the ax. He begins to ax the walkers in the head, just in case they got back up.

"I'm sorry." Nate sighs and looks at Amy.

"It's not your fault. I knew my dad would be pissed. He's always gets mad when I descale fish wrong."

"Why do it then?" Nate sighs and looks down at his hand.

"My mom used to do it like that. It used to drive my dad up the walls. It was how she taught me to do it."

"You said your dad taught you." Nate looks over at her and smiles.

"He taught me the right away to descale fish after he learned I kept getting my hand cut open for the past year by doing what my mother does. By then it was engraved into my head that there was no other way." Amy laughs and shakes his head.

"Sounds like you're screwed then." Nate smiles.

"Yeah, it appears so." Amy walks up closer to him and smiles up at him.

"I never got to finish thanking you for saving me." She says, her hand resting on his chest. His eyes move to his father, who was watching the two.

"My dad would kill me if I stop walking to go..." He pauses and eyes Amy over. "'Have fun' with you." Amy smiles.

"What about after?" Nate smiles.

"I don't think your sister wants you spending your nights with me." Amy looks over and sees Andrea glaring holes into Nate.

"Oh well," She says as she looks up at him. "Because I loved that kiss last night." Nate smiles and Amy pulls his head down, kissing him. Nate kisses her back, his good hand wrapping around and laying on her waist.

"I... I gotta get back to work." He mumbles against her lips.

"I'll see you after then." She smiles, stepping back and giving him a smile before walking over to her very angry sister.

"Nate." Nate looks over at his father, the smallest of smile on his lips. "Get back to work." Nate grins and nods as he goes and starts stabbing the dead in the brain.

"Here, Nate, help me with these bodies." Cricket says, causing Nate to glance at her and nod.

"Sure thing, Cricket."

"You and Amy, huh?" She asks as she picks the body up.

"Oh... um..." Nate blushes, causing Cricket to smile.

"You're cute together." She says as she threw the body into the fire.

"I heard your not talking to my dad, what happened?" Cricket sighs and looks at Nate.

"He lost his temper on a kid in Atlanta, I tried to break it up, he ended up pushing me away and I hit my head on the wall. Glenn says I have a concussion." Nate looks at her shock.

"I'm sorry." He says, but she shrugs in response. "I'm sure my dad didn't mean it."

"I know he didn't, but doesn't mean I can't get him back." She smiles. "Silent treatment always works." Nate smiles.

"You're evil."

"Don't tell."

"Never."

"Wake up, Jimbo, we got some work to do." Daryl says as he walks over to Morales and helps him pick the body up. They carry it to the fire, but Glenn stops him.

"What are you guys doing? This is for geeks. Our people go over there."

"What's the difference? They're all infected."

"Our people go in that row over there." Glenn says, his voice shaking with emotion. Cricket frowns and walks over with Nate.

"Problem, Glenn?"

"We don't burn them!" He yells. "We bury them." Cricket sighs and nods to the guys. "Understand?"

"Give Glenn this, we all got way of morning."

"Our people go in that row over there."

"You reap what you sow." Daryl says as he drags the body over to the other camp member's dead bodies.

"You know what? Shut up, man." Morales says.

"Daryl, knock it off. You can morn whatever the fuck you want, but Glenn's doing it his way, so deal with it." Cricket says.

"Seriously, dad, drop it." Nate says to his father. "Cricket's right, we all morn our way." He says, his hands closing around his mother's dogtags. Daryl sighs as he sees that and nods.

"Fine." He says as he walks away.

"Then show me." Everyone looks over as Jacqui spoke loudly to Jim. "A walker got him. A walker bit Jim." Daryl stops in his tracks and looks over at them. Nate and Cricket exchange a look before frowning.

"Shit." Cricket says.

"I'm okay. I'm okay." Jim says as everyone walks over to him. Daryl walks over with his ax and Cricket pulls out her pistol, the one Rick ended up giving her during the walker attack.

"Show it to us." Daryl demands. "Show it to us." Daryl says as he takes his ax off his shoulder and readies it.

"Easy, Jim." Shane says as he goes for his shovel again.

"Grab him." Daryl orders. "Grab him. Grab him now."

"Jim, put it down. Put it down."

"I'm okay. I'm okay." Jim says as T-Dog grabs him. Daryl walks forward, dropping his ax and lifting Jim's shirt to reveal a large bite. "I'm okay. I'm okay." T-Dog lets go of him as if he would turn around and bite T-Dog right then and there. "I'm okay. I'm okay. I'm okay. I'm okay. I'm okay." He kept repeating.

The guys got together and started discussing Jim's fate. "I say we put a pickaxe in his head." Daryl says.

"Is that what you'd do if it was your son?" Nate looks at Shane in shock as Daryl narrows his eyes, stepping forward and pointing at Shane.

"Do not bring my son into this." He says.

"If you can't do it to your son then you shouldn't do it to Jim." Cricket says, causing Nate to look at her. 'Just proving a point' she mouths.

"I hate to say it- I never thought I would but maybe Daryl's right." Dale says, causing his daughter to look at him shocked.

"Dad." Cricket says in surprise.

"Jim's not a monster, Dale, or some rabid dog." Rick says.

"I'm not suggesting-

"He's sick. A sick man. We start down that road, where do we draw the line?"

"The line's pretty clear. Zero tolerance for walkers, or them to be." Nate frowns at his father's words. He looks at his dad with worry full eyes, causing Daryl to look at him confused. Nate shakes his head and walks away. "Where you going?" But Nate ignores him and walks off.

Amy shakes her head, a smile on her lips as she sees Nate up in his tree once more. "You like this tree don't you?"

"It helps me clear my head." He says as she starts climbing up. "What you doin'?"

"Joining you. What does it look like?" Nate rolls his eyes and holds out a hand.

"Here, before you go and hurt yourself." She smiles and takes his noninjured hand. He pulls her up one handedly, pulling her up to his lap.

"Wow, you're strong." Nate smiles and pulls her to lean against his chest. He buries his face into her neck and lets out a heavy sigh. "You okay?"

"My dad's talking about killing Jim. Shane asked him if it was me if my dad could just put me down."

"Nate-

"He told him not to bring me into it and then went on about zero tolerance for walkers and those bitten."

"Nate he wouldn't-

"How'd you know? My dad says that and yet he wouldn't do the same to me? I almost was Jim."

"Nate, your alive, your dad saved you." Amy says, but Nate shakes his head.

"Just barely. I was seconds away from getting bit." He whispers. "I almost died." Amy turns around and pulls Nate into arms.

"Nate, don't. Don't do that. I almost died too, but I didn't because you saved me. Don't dread on what didn't happen." She kisses Nate's cheek.

"Amy-

"Nathaniel!" Nate looks over and sees his father walking over.

"You don't have to go." Amy says, but Nate sighs.

"Yeah, I do. I gotta talk to him." She nods and gives him a quick kiss before climbing down the tree with him." Daryl eyed the pair with a frown.

"I'll see you after." Amy says, going to leave, but Nate stops her.

"Amy?" She turns and looks over at him. "Happy birthday." She smiles.

"Some birthday." She says before walking away.

"Nate, you do not run off like that." Daryl says as he walks up to him.

"Dad, I-

"No, you listen to me boy!" Daryl yelled. "I almost lost you last night, you will not go storming off, you hear me?" Nate nods, looking down at his feet.

"I hear you dad." He whispers.

"Then why the hell, you do it?"

"I just..." He looks over at his dad. "Would you do it dad? If it was me?" Daryl sighs.

"It's not you-

"It almost was. Would you have killed me if I got bit?" Daryl looks at him for a long moment before pulling him into his arms.

"Don't. Don't dread on it. You're okay. You're safe and not a walker." He says, hugging him tightly and kissing his temple. "I love you, kiddo. You hear me and as long as I am alive there will never come a time where you get bit." Nate wraps his arms around his dad, burying his face in his dad's chest.

"I love you too."

"I have to get back to work." Nate nods and pulls away.

"Do you need help?" Daryl smiles at Nate.

"I'd love your help." He says, causing Nate to nod and follow after his dad.

Amy sat on the steps of the rv, thinking about today. Today was an awful birthday. So many people were dead. "Amy?" Amy looks up and sees Andrea and Cricket standing together. "Cricket and I have been talking. We know today didn't go how you wished. You're 18 today and it has been a bad birthday, but we hope... we hope we can make it better." Andrea says.

"We got you some gifts when we were in the city." Cricket says as she shows a black bag and Andrea shows a red tissue paper wrapped object.

"Guys I don't feel like-

"Please, Amy, for us." Amy sighs and stands up, she takes Andrea present first. She unfolds the paper and sees the mermaid necklace.

"Oh wow."

"I know you love mermaids and-

"Thank you." Amy hugs Andrea and smiles. "Can you?"

"Sure, turn around." Amy turns around and lifts her hair. Andrea puts the necklace on for her and smiles. "Perfect." Andrea says. Amy turns and looks at Cricket.

"It looks great." Cricket says before handing her the bag present. "Here, I hope you like it."

"Of course I will, you and Andrea are always the best." Cricket smiles and watches as she drops the bracelet into her hand. "Cricket." Amy gasps, looking at each charm with awe. Andrea forces a smile, a part of her mad that Cricket got a better gift. "Can you?" Cricket nods and puts the bracelet on her. "Thank you so much." She wraps her arms around Cricket and smiles. "Both of you." She hugs Andrea next.

"So... did it work?" Cricket asks with a smile.

"Yes, it works." Amy smiles. "It defiantly worked."

The group sat by the fire, they were called for a group meaning. Cricket sat between Miranda and T-Dog, Miranda's family sitting on her other side. Amy sat with her sister, while the Dixons stood further away from the others. "I've, uh I've been thinking about Rick's plan. Now look, there are no- there are no guarantees either way. I'll be the first one to admit that. I've known this man for a long time. I trust his instincts. I say the most important thing here is we need to stay together. So those of you that agree, we leave first thing in the morning. Okay?"

Cricket frowns before standing and walking off. She leaned against a tree as she looked over the land below them. She hears footsteps walking up to her, she doesn't bother to turn, she can recognize Daryl's footsteps by now, she knows its him. "How's your head?" Cricket rolls her eyes and glance over at him.

"Still hurts, but I'll manage." Daryl frowns and looks down at the land below them.

"I shouldn't have pushed you."

"No you shouldn't have, but I forgive you." Daryl glances over her, but she simply smiles. "We all loose our cool. It's fine." Daryl nods before turning to go, but Cricket grabbed his hand, stopping him from continuing. Daryl looks over at her with a questioning look. "Are you going to the CDC?" Daryl nods as he looks down at her hand on his.

"You?" She nods in response. "You should get some rest." She nods.

"You too, and Nate. He could use is after the week he's been through." Daryl nods, his eyes falling onto his son, who sits beside Amy. "How's he doing?"

"Better." Daryl says.

"Best keep an eye on him."

"He's not bit."

"Never says he was, but he almost was last night. It's enough to scare anyone." Daryl frowns before nodding. Cricket lets go of Daryl, the both of them just now realizing that her hand was still on him, and they went their separate ways.

Cricket didn't get much sleep that night. Jim took the bed so Dale took up to the roof in his chair, while Cricket had no other option, but the floor. She only got a few hours of sleep and she looked it. By morning her eyes were baggy and bloodshot, but everyone let her be as she waited for everyone to get up.

"Alright, everybody listen up." Shane says once everyone was up and packed to go. "Those of you with CBs, we're gonna be on channel 40. Let's keep the chatter down, okay? Now you got a problem, don't have a CB, can't get a signal or anything at all, you're gonna hit your horn one time. That'll stop the caravan. Any questions?"

"We're, uh..." Cricket looks over at the Morales family and Miranda looks at her with a sad look. Something told Cricket that the Morales family had different plans. "We're not going." Morales continues, causing Cricket's stomach to plummet. Two of her best friends were leaving the group, going out into that world all alone.

"We have family in Birmingham." Miranda says as she holds Eliza close to her. "We want to be with our people."

"You go on your own, you won't have anyone to watch your back." Shane tells them.

"We'll take the chance." Morales responds back. "I got to do what's best for my family."

"You sure?" Rick asks as Miranda looks at Cricket.

"We talked about it." Morales answers Rick. "We're sure."

"Alright." Rick looks at Shane. "Shane."

"Yeah, alright." He agrees before Rick goes into the gun bag. ".357?"

"Yeah." Rick says as he pulls out a pistol and hands it to Morales with a box of ammo with it.

"The box is half full." Shane says to Morales as he holds out the box. Daryl scoffs before walking off, Cricket ignores him and walks over to Miranda.

"Cricket-

"I understand." Cricket says, cutting off Miranda's most likely apology. "You be careful out there."

"You too." Miranda hugs Cricket, they both tear up, but they keep their tears at bay. "I'll miss our talks." Cricket laughs and nods as she pulls away.

"I will miss our talks too." Miranda smiles and looks up at Cricket.

"Maybe we will meet with one another again."

"I'd like that." Cricket says before turning to Morales. "You keep your family safe." She says before hugging him.

"You too chica, be safe out there with this wild group." Cricket smiles and pulls away.

"We'll miss you." Morales nods and Cricket goes to Eliza and Louis. "You two be good for your mom and dad, make sure to stay out of trouble out there." They both nod before going up to Cricket and hugging her. "Be safe all of you."

Everyone says goodbye quickly, while Cricket walks to the rv. "Let's move out." Shane calls as everyone gets in their vehicles. Morales gets into his car with his family, while the Grimes get into one car with Sophia and Carol. In the RV was Glenn, Dale, Jacqui, and Cricket. Shane had his own jeep, while T-Dog, Andrea, and Amy were in another car together. The Dixons were in Merle's old blue truck together.

They drove out of the quarry, waving goodbye to the Morales as they turned the opposite direction. They were leaving the quarry for good now.


	9. Chapter 7

They were only on the road for an hour or so before the rv stopped. "Dad?"

"It's the damn hose." He says as they all pile out of the cars to look at the rv. "I told you we'd never get far on that hose." Dale says as Rick tries to get the smoke all out. "I said I needed the one from the cube van."

"Can you jury-rig it?" Rick asks.

"That's all it's been so far. It's more duct tape than hose. And I'm out of duct tape."

"I see something up ahead." Shane calls back. "A gas station if we're lucky."

"Y'all, Jim- It's bad. I don't think he can take anymore." Jacqui says, causing Amy to look at her sister.

"Hey, Rick, you want to hold down the fort?" Shane asks. "I'll drive ahead, see what I can bring back."

"Yeah, I'll come along too and I'll back you up." T-Dog says.

"Y'all keep your eyes open now." Shane warns them. "We'll be right back." Cricket frowns before walking over to where Daryl was.

"Hey." Daryl glances over and frowns.

"Taking Jim is not a good idea. We should have just put down back at camp."

"I know." Daryl looks at Cricket in surprise. "There's no cure, if there was then there wouldn't be these walkers anymore. All we're doing is giving Jim false hope."

"So, you agree with me?"

"There's not much else we can do." Cricket says with a shrug. "Bring him with us does nothing, but prolong it. It's not a cold he has. It's much much worst."

"We could-

"Even if I agree with you Daryl, it's still not our call, it's not Rick's either. It's Jim that's dying he should decide what he wants to do." Daryl frowns and looks over at her.

"What do you think Jim wants?" Cricket frowns.

"I'm not sure." She says as Rick walks out of the rv.

"Jim... he wants us to leave him here." Everyone stares at him for a long moment, as if thinking he's kidding and waiting for him to start laughing and smiling. "It's what he says he wants." Rick says.

"And he's lucid?" Carol asks, surprise and doubt in her voice.

"He seems to be. I would say yes."

"Back in the camp when I said Daryl might be right and you shut me down," Dale begins, causing them to look at him. "You misunderstood. I would never go along with callously killing a man. I was just gonna suggest that we ask Jim what he wants. And I think we have an answer."

"We just leave him here?" Shane asks. "We take off? Man, I'm not sure I could live with that."

"He says it's what he wants." Cricket argues.

"It's not your call," Lori agrees with Cricket. "Either one of you." The group falls silent, the answer is now in everyone's minds. They were going to have to leave Jim behind.

Rick and Shane carry Jim out and places him under a nice shady tree. "Yeah. That's it." Rick says as Jim lets out a pained groan. Jim lets out a heavy breath as he smiles and looks up.

"Hey, another damn tree." Cricket smiles, fighting back tears. She had grown to know everyone in the group and to loose any them is hard, but to loose so many in one go is even harder.

"Hey, Jim-" Shane starts, obviously feeling guilty about doing this. "I mean, you know it doesn't need to be this."

"No. It's good. The breeze feels nice." Jim says as he closes his eyes.

"Okay." Shane says. "Alright." He steps back and allows Jacqui to step forward.

"Just close your eyes, sweetie." She tells him. "Don't fight." She gives him a quick kiss on the cheek, tears starting in her eyes as she steps back and heads back to the rv.

"Jim, do want this?" Rick asks, holding out a pistol.

"No." Jim says honestly. "You'll need it." Rick takes it back and Jim looks at him. "I'm okay." Rick nods and stands up. "I'm okay." Rick steps back and stands beside Lori as Dale walks forward. "Oh. Hey." Jim smiles.

"Thanks for, uh... for fighting for us." He says.

"Okay." Jim nods and Dale walks away.

"Bye, Jim." Cricket says, forcing a smile as she kisses his cheek, she heads back to the rv, leaving Daryl to give one last glance at the man they were leaving behind.

Not much longer after leaving Jim did they arrive at the CDC. They all got out of their vehicles and started for it. There was dead bodies every where and many were military men and women.

Cricket walked beside Daryl and Nate, while Amy walked beside her sister further up. Cricket almost trips on one of the bodies, but Daryl catches her quickly. "Watch yourself, we don't need you getting hurt again." Cricket looks up at Daryl.

"Thank you." She whispers, the two stare at each other for a moment before Daryl lets go of Cricket. He nods at her and the two begin walking to the CDC once more.

"Okay guys, keep movie. Stay together." Rick tells them as he leads the way. "Keep moving. Come on."

"Shh." Shane whispers, not wanting them to talk too loudly. Daryl helped Cricket around a body, as she again was not looking where she was going.

"Careful, Annabell." Cricket froze as she looks up at Daryl. "What?"

"I didn't realize you even knew my real name." She says. Daryl looks away, obviously embarrassed.

"I heard your dad call you it a few times, figured he wouldn't name you Cricket as your birth name."

"I don't go by my birth name anymore, it's very rare for anyone to call me that."

"Sorry." Daryl says, but Cricket shakes her head.

"Don't be. I don't mind you calling me that." She smiles up at him. "I like you calling me that." Daryl manages a smile as Nate walked by.

"We're almost there, baby." Lori says as the Grimes get closer and closer to the doors. "Almost there."

"Come on." Daryl says as he leads Cricket after them.

"Nothing?" Rick asks as Shane looks for a way in. He tries opening the garage style doors, but couldn't find away, so he starts banging on them.

"There's nobody here." T-Dog says.

"Then why are these shutters down?" Rick asks desperately. Cricket turns as she hears noises behind her.

"Daryl?" He turns and frowns as he sees the walkers.

"Walkers!" Daryl calls back to the group. Carl whimpers as he hears Daryl and sees the walker. Daryl aimed and fired at the oncoming walker. "You lead us into a graveyard!" Daryl yells as he starts over to Rick.

"He made a call!" Dale says.

"It was the wrong damn call!" Daryl yells as he pulls Nate closer to him, trying to protect his only son.

"Just shut up." Shane says as he pushes Daryl away from Rick. "You hear me? Shut up. Shut up!" Shane turns to Rick. "Rick, this is a dead end."

"Where are we gonna go?" Carol asks, fear clear in her voice.

"Do you hear me? No blame." Shane says to him.

"She's right. We can't be here this close to the city after dark." Lori says as she looks at Rick.

"For Benning, Rick- Still an option." Shane says fearfully.

"On what? No food, no fuel. That's 100 miles." Amy says as she takes Nate's hand in hers.

"125. I checked the map." Glenn corrects.

"Forget Fort Benning. We need answers tonight, now." Lori demands.

"Well, think of something." Rick says to Lori, trying to calm her down.

"Come on, let's go." Glenn begs as he looks around at the area, trying to see any oncoming walkers.

"Let's get out of here." T-Dog says.

"Let's go. Please." Glenn begs. Everyone begins to hurry back to the cars.

"Come on." Daryl says as he takes Cricket's hand in his. "Come on." He pulls her closer to him, lacing his fingers with hers. Neither realizes what Daryl hand is doing, but they do feel the fear and chemistry coming off each other.

"The camera- it moved!" Rick says, causing Daryl to shake his head.

"He lost it." Daryl says as he holds Cricket's hand tighter. She was shaking, real fear was starting to creep into her, it made her wrap her arms around Daryl's bicep, just wanting to feel comfort from this nightmare like life.

"You imagined it." Dale says as everyone stops to look back at him. Cricket wraps her arms around Daryl, trying desperately to remain calm. Daryl holds her close to him, trying to keep her calm.

"Daryl." She whispers, her voice shaking. "I don't want to die."

"You're not gonna die." He promises as he looks down at her. "I won't let it happen." Her eyes lift to meet his, so much emotion passes between them in that second.

"It's dead. You need to let it go, man." Shane says.

"Rick, there's nobody here!" Lori yells at him.

"Daryl." Cricket holds him closer. He looks down at her. "I... I don't want to die without telling you everything." Daryl frowns and looks at her confused.

"Get back to the cars now!" Shane yells.

"You're not dying, Cricket. You can tell me when we get out of here."

"Please we're desperate! Please help us! We have women, children, no food, hardly any gas left." Rick presses on. Daryl pulls Cricket away from the scene and leads her back.

"Daryl-

"Cricket, we're not dying." He says, but Cricket pulled him to a stop.

"I'm not saying that." Daryl frowns and looks over as Cricket, but she was looking over at Nate, he was heading there way, but he was still a great distance away. Daryl had been so caught up about getting Cricket out that he didn't even notice his son was so far away, guilt shook him as he let go of Cricket and started for Nate.

"Come on, Nate. Keep up." Daryl says as he wraps his arm around the young teen.

"Please!" Rick yells as Shane drags him away. Cricket closes her eyes, covering her ears as the group yells. She didn't want to be here. She didn't want to here this. She didn't want any of this.

"We're gonna get out of here." Daryl promises as he takes her hands off her ears and holds them in his hands. "I promise."

"You're killing us! You're killing us! You're killing us!" Everyone falls silent as the doors open and light spills out.

"Oh my god."

"Come on." Daryl says as he leads his son and Cricket into the building with everyone else.

"Daryl, you cover the back." Shane says as Daryl keeps his cross bow aimed behind them, his son aiming his recurve bow.

"Hello?" Rick calls as he enters the room. "Hello?"

"Close those doors." Shane orders. "Watch for walkers." Shane yells back to Daryl.

Everyone looks around, but it seemed as if the building was empty. "Hello?" Rick calls as he cocks his gun for extra measure, just as a man starts down the stairs.

"Anybody infected?" The man asks.

"One of our group was. He didn't make it." Rick answers.

"Why are you here? What do you want?" The man asks.

"A chance." Rick answers.

"That's asking an awful lot these days."

"I know."

"You all submit to a blood test. That's the price of admission."

"We can do that." Rick nods.

"You got stuff to bring in, you do it now. Once this door closes, it stays closed." Everyone quickly heads back out and to the cars.

Cricket quickly grabs her bags before heading back out of the rv. She runs right into Daryl, causing her to almost fall, but Daryl quickly catches her before she can fall. "What did I tell you about being careful?" Daryl asks as she stood so close to him. She looks up at him and couldn't find the words to speak, being so close to the strong man made her heart race. "What did you want to tell me?" He asks as he remembers her mentioning something before.

"We... uh... we should head back in before the doors close." She whispers, causing him to nod and step back.

"Yeah, okay." Daryl says before turning and heading back to the building. Cricket takes in a shaky breath before following after him.

They get back into the building and into the elevator. "Doctors always go around packing heat like that?" Daryl asks as he stood in the far corner, Cricket stood close beside him, Nate, and Amy.

"There was plenty left lying around. I familiarized myself." The man, Jenner, says as he looks around at them all. "But you look harmless enough. Except you." He says as he looks down at Carl. "I'll have to keep my eye on you." Nate smiles and glances over at Amy.

They head down the hall once out of the elevator. "Are we underground?" Carol asks with a bit of a shaky voice.

"Are you claustrophobic?" Jenner asks.

"A little." Carol admits.

"Try not to think about it." Jenner brings to a large room. "Vi, bring up the lights in the big room." The big room is a large room with a circle shape platform that has small cubicals with computers. "Welcome to zone 5." Jenner says to them.

"Where is everyone? The other doctors, the staff?" Rick asks.

"I'm it." Jenner tells them as he turns to face them once more. "It's just me here."

"What about the person you were speaking with?" Lori asks.

"Vi?" Jenner calls. "Vi, say hello to our guests. Tell them... welcome."

"Hello, guests. Welcome." The computer calls out to them.

"I'm all that's left." Everyone's face fell as he says this. "I'm sorry."

The group soon gathers around to take blood and give them to Jenner to test. "What's the point? If we were infected, we'd be running a fever." Andrea says as she gives blood.

"I've already broken every rule in the book letting you in here." Jenner tells her. "Let me just at least be thorough. All done." He pulls the needle out and places it on the table.

Andrea gets up and frowns. "Ooh." Amy gets up from her spot beside Nate and walks over to her sister.

"Andrea?"

"Are you okay?" Jenner asks.

"Mmm." She says as Amy glances over at Jenner with concern.

"She hasn't eaten in days." Amy tells him.

"None of us have." Jacqui adds as she supports Andrea. Jenner looks at them all and frowns.

He quickly decided to make everyone dinner. They all sat around the table drinking wine and eating good food. Nate and Amy sat together, holding each other's hands and smiling. "Try this." Nate gave her a look, but she ignores him and holds up her fork. Dale chuckles as he watches Nate bite the piece of food off the fork. "Well?" He simply rolls his eyes as Cricket smiles.

"Be nice." Cricket says, causing everyone to laugh.

"I don't need you to feed me, Amy." He says, but Amy smiles.

"But I want to." Everyone laughs, while Andrea frowns at her sister. Cricket finished her fifth glass of wine, she was already feeling tipsy. Dale pours Lori some wine.

"Fine." Lori says.

"You know it Italy, children have a little bit of wine with dinner." Dale says. "And in France."

"Well, when Carl is in Italy or France, he can have some then." She says as she covers his cup with her hand.

"What's it gonna hurt? Come on." Rick says, causing Cricket and the others to giggle. "Come on." Dale laughs. "What?" Rick asks, causing Lori to laugh and take her hand off the cup. Everyone cheers as Dale fills the cup a little bit.

"There you are, young lad. You know Cricket wasn't much older than you when she had her first taste of wine."

"Oh really?" Lori asks, causing him to nod.

"Yeah, she loved it as much as her cranberry juice." Everyone laughs as Cricket shrugs in an innocent manner. Everyone looks at Carl and waited for him to take his first sip. He took it and made a face.

"Eww." Everyone laugh as Lori nods.

"That's my body. That's my boy." Lori says happily. "Good boy."

"Yuck." Carl says. "That tastes nasty." He says as Lori pours his wine into her cup.

"Well, just stick to soda pop there, bud." Shane says, no laughter or even happiness.

"Not you, Glenn." Daryl says, causing Cricket to look over at him.

"What?" Glenn asks.

"Keep drinking, little man. I want to see how red your face can get." Everyone laughs as Daryl fills his glass up. Rick clinks his glass, getting everyone's attention.

"It seems to me we haven't thanked our host properly." Rick says as he stands up.

"He is more than just our host." T-Dog says as he lips his cup.

"Hear hear!" The group says together.

"Here's to you, doc. Booyah!" Cricket laughs at Daryl's words. He was pretty drunk too it seems.

"Booyah!" The men yell after him.

"Thank you. Thank you, doctor."

"Booyah!" T-Dog says as everyone clinks their glasses together.

"So when the hell are you going to tell us what happened, Doc?" Shane asks, causing the group to fall silent. "All the-the other doctors that were supposed to be figuring out what happened, where are they?"

"We're celebrating, Shane." Rick tells him. "Don't need to do this now."

"Whoa, wait a second. This is why we're here, right?" He looks at Rick. "This was your move- supposed to find all the answers. Instead we-" He chuckles in a rather dark tone. "We found him." He says, motioning to Jenner. "Found one man. Why?"

"Well, when things got bad, a lot of people just left, went off to be with their families. And when things got worse, when the military cordon got overrun, the rest bolted."

"Every last one?" Shane asks.

"No, many couldn't face walking out the door. They... opted out. There was a rash of suicides." Cricket frowns and looks down at her plant, a feeling of sadness creeping it's way inside her. "That was a bad time."

"You didn't leave." Andrea says. "Why?" She asks.

"I just kept working, hoping to do some good." The room falls silent as everyone looks at Shane.

"Dude, you are such a buzzkill, man." Glenn says. The group quickly finish their wine and super after that. Wanting to just settle down now and get away from Shane and his moody attitude.

"Most of the facility is powered down including housing, so you'll have to make do here." Jenner tells them as he leads them down the hall. "The couches are comfortable, but there are cots in storage if you like. There's a rec room down the hall that you kids might enjoy." He turns and faces them. "Just don't plug in the video games, okay?" He asks, causing them to nod. "Or anything that draws power. The same applies- if you shower go easy on the hot water." He tells them before walking off down the hall.

"Hot water?" Glenn asks as he turns to face everyone.

"That's what the man said." T-Dog says, causing them both to laugh. Everyone quickly hurries down the hall and claims room. They all hop in the showers and wash themselves clean.

Nate sighs in relief as the hot sprays run down his back. A knock on the shower had him jumping. He turned and saw Amy standing on the side. "Shit, Amy." He says, his heart racing in his chest.

"Can I join you." Nate's racing heart stilled in a second. He stared at Amy in total shock.

"W-what?"

"Can I join you?" She allowed her robe to fall to the ground and Nate mouth watered at the sight of her body bare before his eyes. He could only manage a nod as she opened the door and stepped under the rays. She walks towards him and kisses him. He turns her around, backing her up against the shower wall under the hot spray of the shower. His lips found her neck and he lifted her up. Her legs wrap around his waist. "Nate." She moans as her breasts are pushed against his chest.

"Are you?" She gives him a confused look. "Are you a virgin?" She frowns, a look of fear and hurt fills her eyes.

"Aren't you?" Nate lowers his eyes before looking up at her.

"I... Amy, I'm sorry." He whispers. "I'm not." Amy looks away from him and he turns her head to face him once more. "Look, Amy I was 16. It was three years ago. Just because I'm not a virgin doesn't mean I don't care about you. Not everyone waits."

"I just... Who?" Nate sighs and rests his forehead against hers.

"Merle took me to a strip club when I was 16. He told me now that I was 16 that I needed to learn to have sex. My dad doesn't know... I didn't want him getting mad that Merle pressured me." Amy looks at him in surprise. "I'm not lying to you. I never got the option to wait for the right one to come along, Merle didn't want me to, but I want to give you the chance to choose." He tells her. "We don't have to do this if you don't want to Amy. I don't want to force you into doing something you'll regret."

"Nate," Amy places her hand on his chest. "I came in here willingly didn't I?" He smiles and she pulls his head back down, laying her lips on his.

Cricket walks out of the bathroom, she was dressed in a matching pj outfit; a blue low cut t-shirt, blue shorts. She knew the rooms would be filling up soon, she also knew Amy would be more than likely rooming with her sister or Nate. Her only options is to room with her father, which she really does not like.

Before Cricket could find where her father was Shane stepped out. Cricket frowns and looks up at him. "Hey, Shane." She says before trying to go around him. She was still very drunk and tipsy, but she was not drunk enough to do anything with Shane. Shane has always freaked her out and the look he was giving her made her skin crawl.

"Where you going?" Shane stepped in front of her causing her to frown.

"To bed." She says, trying to go around him once more.

"You could room with me." He says, stepping in front of her once more, running a hand down her arm. She pulls her arm out of his hand and glares up him.

"Shane, let's not do something we regret-" She took a step back, but she was drunk and tipsy, so she tripped. She tripped right into Daryl's arms.

"She's rooming with me, Shane." Daryl growls as he pulls Cricket up to her feet and wraps an arm around her.

"Fuck you, she can-

"Shane, please just leave me alone." Cricket says as she wraps her arms around Daryl. "I wanna room with Daryl." Shane glares at the redneck before pushing past him and storming down the hall.

"Come on." Daryl says as he leads her into the room he claimed for himself.

"Do you want to know what I was going to tell you before?" Daryl raises an eyebrow at her. He could tell she was drunk, but he nods anyways.

"I have the hugest crush on you." Daryl froze and looks at Cricket. "Like really like you." She says as she walks up to him. "I have since the day you caught me washing in the creek." She whispers, his heart started racing as she looked up at him with drunk, lustful eyes behind long lashes. "I know you feel the same. I could feel your eyes on my naked body."

"Cricket, your drunk. You need to just sleep it off."

"I maybe drunk, Daryl, but I'm being truthful." She whispers before standing on her tipy toes and kisses him. Whether it is because he is drunk or just done jumping around his feels, but he pushes Cricket against the wall and kisses her back with everything he got. "Mm, Daryl." She kisses his neck. "Let's just forget what's happening out there, let's us just forget it all."


	10. Chapter 8

(Mature chapter coming up)

Daryl shouldn't be doing this. He shouldn't be allowing himself to get so close to this girl. He shouldn't be taking advantage of her in her drunken self. He shouldn't be sleeping with this girl when he should make sure his son is taken care of, but with him being drunk he doesn't care what he shouldn't do he only cares about what he wants and right now he wants Cricket all to himself. He kisses down Cricket's neck as she pulls his shirt off him. Daryl didn't even care if she feels his scars or sees them, he just wants her.

"Daryl." Cricket moans as he rips her shirt over her head and starts on his belt. She sits up and helps him, the both of them moving quickly to get their clothes off. Their clothes were laying all around the room and once they got everything off Daryl moved back above her. Daryl pushes into her causing Cricket to lay her head back and moan. Her fingers pulls the blanket into her fists as Daryl moves in her. They both moved together as one. Her nails dug into his back as Daryl buries his face into her neck. Daryl shuttered as he came inside her. She lets out a single moan as she cums. The two lay down and quickly falls asleep.

Cricket wakes up with a smile on her face as she opens her eyes. Last night was a night she would never forget. The covers laid around her and her hair was sprawled across the pillows. She looks around and frowns, not sure where Daryl was. She sits up, wrapping the covers around her as she looks around the small room. Daryl walks in that moment, he was fully dressed and in his hands were Cricket's bags. "I thought you'd want these." Daryl says as he places the bags down.

"Thanks." She smiles at him.

"Do you..." He trails off unsure how to ask her if she remembers.

"I remember." She tells him as she pushes her hair off her shoulders. "And I don't regret it. Do you?" Daryl pauses and looks at her. Cricket had always been an anomaly to Daryl. He never truly understood the girl. He has seen her so strong and confident and other times so scared and insecure. She had always kept Daryl's mind on her. She was good to Nate, not many women would go for a package deal, but Cricket loves Nate as if he was her own son. Cricket was also very beautiful and very... talented. Any man would be crazy not to fall for her and Daryl was not crazy.

"No, I don't regret it." He says after a moment of thinking everything over. Cricket smiles and looks down at the sheet. That shy side of her was no showing through, causing Daryl to smile.

"I should get dressed." Cricket says, causing Daryl to nod.

"I'll go and-

"You don't have to." Cricket says, causing Daryl to pause and look at her. She slipped out of the bed, fully naked and heading to her bags. Daryl's eyes followed her, his heart racing and his breath shallow. Just watching her made him needy. Cricket pulls out a t-shirt and a pair of jeans. She dresses quick enough and slips her shoes on. Cricket quickly brushes her hair, slipping her hat on, and she takes of other business before heading out with Daryl. It was still early, so Cricket was not surprised to find very little people up.

The only people up was of course Dale, T-Dog, and Nate with Amy. Nate and Amy both look up upon seeing Cricket and Daryl walking in together. Amy gives Nate a look, but he simply shrugs as he eats his toast and eggs. Daryl and Cricket thanks T-Dog once he gives them food and they go and sit with Amy and Nate. "You're up a lot earlier than I thought you'd be." Nate says as sips his coffee.

"Mm." Was all Daryl says as he eats, he clearly didn't want to answer Nate's obvious question.

"Hey, Cric." Cricket looks over at Amy with a questioning look. "I forgot something back at the rooms, wanna come with me to get it?" Cricket was about to tell her she was a big girl and can do it herself, but Amy had already gotten up and pulled Cricket to her feet. Cricket rolls her eyes and follows after Amy, knowing it was no use to argue with her.

They walked down the hall quite a way before Amy stopped and turned to Cricket. "Why did you walk in with Daryl?" Cricket sighs, she wasn't dumb she figured Amy would try something like this.

"Amy-

"Answer me, Cricket."

"Look what Daryl and I did or didn't do is our business and-

"Oh please as if you weren't curious about Nate and I." Cricket rolls her eyes as she looks at Amy. Sometimes she hates being a girl because being a girl did mean she was interested in things such as Amy and Nate. "We slept together, twice." Cricket sighs.

"Now I have to spill, right?" Amy nods, causing Cricket to look behind her to make sure Daryl hadn't walked out.

"We were both drunk, but we don't regret it." Amy's eyes widen.

"I knew it! You slept together." Cricket gives her a look.

"Hush."

"You don't want everyone to know?"

"I just don't want to go around telling every person I come across. Daryl and I don't want to make it a big deal."

"Was it good. I mean Nate... he was amazing. Like father like son?"

"Defiantly." Cricket smiles. "He was... it was... everything was amazing." Amy smiles.

"You owe me a chocolate bar." Cricket raises an eyebrow at Amy as she says this.

"Why?"

"Well when we first got to the camp you told me about you and Daryl's first meeting. I bet a chocolate bar that he would be great in bed and you'd be in his bed before long. You told me I was nuts and that you'd never sleep with a guy you barely knew, so we made a bet. You owe me chocolate now." Cricket laughs and shakes her head.

"Of course you remember that."

"I always remember my bets."

"Whatever, I don't have chocolate on me-

"We'll find it eventually. You'll have to give it to me before one of us dies."

"Aren't you pleasant." Cricket mumbles before turning and heading back to where the others were. Amy giggles and catches up to her, looping their arms together.

Soon everyone was eating their breakfast and enjoying the hangovers they now had from the night before. Soon Jenner walks in, greeting everyone with a smile. "Morning." He says as he walks past the group sitting at the table.

"Hey, doc." Shane says with a nod to the doctor.

"Doctor, I don't mean to slam you with question first thing-" Dale begins, causing his daughter to glance over to him.

"But you will anyways." Jenner says.

"We didn't come here for the eggs." Andrea says, cutting straight to the point and making Amy frown at her pushiness. Jenner turns and looks at them as Daryl walks over to where Cricket sits and sits down beside her, handing her now full coffee back to her.

"Thanks." She whispers as she gives him a smile. Jenner continues to stare at them for a moment before finally telling them to follow him.

The group walks back into the main room with all the computers. Jenner walks over to one computer and clicks some keys. "Give me playback of TS-19." Jenner orders Vi.

"Playback of TS-19." Vi says back as she brings a video to the main screen.

"Few people ever got a chance to see this." Jenner tells them. "Very few." The rest of the group make their way into the room and down to where Jenner stood. On the screen showed a person's brain.

"Is that a brain?" Carl asks as he looks over at Jenner with a questioning look.

"An extraordinary one. Not that it matters in the end." Cricket leaned against the table beside Daryl and rests against his side. "Take us in for EIV."

"Enhanced Internal View." Vi calls back as Daryl nudges Cricket, motioning her to move forward. Daryl and Cricket now stood near the front where they could see the screen even more better. Daryl crosses his arms as he watches the screen move so that the body moved to a laying down position and the brain got more detailed. Nate rested his arms on the computers beside his father, Amy resting beside him.

The screen zoomed in on the brain, which was lit up with blue lights and the group watches as the screens goes inside the brain showing it's lights even more. "What are those lights?" Shane asks what everyone was wondering.

Daryl takes a seat and glances at Shane, while Cricket stays standing by Daryl's side. "It's a person's life- experiences, memories. It's everything." Jenner tells them. Daryl motions to his lap, causing Cricket to give him a confuse look. Daryl rolls his eyes, taking her hand and pulling her to his lap. She gets the hint and sits down on his lap as Jenner explains more. "Somewhere in all that organic wiring, all those ripples of light, is you, the thing that makes you unique. And human."

"You don't make sense ever?" Daryl questions, causing Cricket to hit his chest and give him a look. Shane frowns as he looks at the two, comfy sitting together.

"Those are synapses, electric impulses in the brain that carry all the messages. They determine everything a person says does or thinks from the moment of birth to the moment of death." Cricket frowns and looks up at the screen.

"Death? That's what this is, a vigil?" Rick asks.

"Yes. Or rather the playback of the vigil." Jenner tells him.

"This person died?" Amy asks as she looks up at the screen with a sad look. "Who?"

"Test Subject 19." Jenner tells them as he stares up at the screen. "Someone who was bitten and infected and volunteered to have us record the process. Vi, scan forward to the first event."

"Scanning to first event." Cricket watches as the once pure blue lighted brain now had a black patch near the central cord of the brain.

"What is that?" Glenn asks.

"It invades the brain like meningitis. The adrenal glands hemorrhage, the brain goes into shutdown," Cricket moves further onto Daryl's lap, moving closer to him as she watches the person's brain get blacker. "Then the major organs." Cricket frowns as she watches the brain go completely black. "Then death. Everything you ever were or ever will be... gone."

"Is that what happened to Jim?" Sophia asks, causing Cricket to look away from the screen and bury her face into Daryl's chest. Daryl hesitates before wrapping an arm around her.

"Yes." Carol tells her, causing the mood in the room to fall drastically.

"Scan to the second event." Jenner tells Vi.

"Scanning to second event."

"The resurrection time vary wildly. We had reports of it happening in as little as three minutes. The longest we heard of was eight hours. In the case of this patient, it was two hours, one minute, seven seconds."

Cricket stands up and looks at the screen closer, watching as the central cord started flickering red light. Daryl stood up and stood behind Cricket, one hand resting on her hip.

"It restarts the brain?" Lori asks.

"No, just the brain stem." Jenner corrects. "Basically, it gets them up and moving."

"But they're not alive?" Rick asks.

"You tell me?" Jenner motions to the screen.

"It's nothing like before." Rick says as he shakes his head at the screen. "Most of that brain is dark."

"Dark, lifeless, dead." Jenner says. "The frontal lobe, the neocortex, the human part- that doesn't come back. The you part. Just a shell driven by mindless instinct." Cricket frowns as she sees an object moving above the walker's brain before being fired off in a bright light and ripping through it's brain. It was obvious that it was a gun shooting the brain.

"God. What was that?" Carol asks, obviously not putting it all together.

"He shot his patient in the head." Andrea tells them. "Didn't you?"

"Vi, power down the main screen and the workstations."

"Powering down main screen and workstations."

"You have no idea what it is, do you?" Andrea asks.

"It could be microbial, viral, parasitic, fungal." Jenner says.

"Or the wrath of God?" Jacqui asks.

"There is that." Jenner admits.

"Somebody must know something." Andrea says, starting to get worked up.

"Andrea-" Amy starts, but Andrea held her hand up, singling for her to shut up.

"Somebody somewhere."

"There are others, right? Other facilities?" Carol asks.

"There may be some. People like me." Jenner says to her.

"But you don't know? How can you not know?" Rick demands.

"Everything went down. Communications, directives- all of it. I've been in the dark for almost a month."

"So it's not just here." Amy says as Nate wraps an arm around her.

"There's nothing left anywhere? Nothing?" Andrea asks. "That's what you're really saying, right?"

"Andrea-" Amy starts once more, but Andrea ignores her and motions for Jenner to answer her. When he didn't answer, Andrea got her answer. She shook her head, clearly upset.

"Jesus." Jacqui mumbles.

"Man, I'm gonna get shit-faced drunk again." Daryl says as he walks away from Cricket.

"Dr. Jenner, I know this has been taxing for you and I hate to ask one more question, but that clock-" Daryl leaned against the computer as Dale walked on the other side of it and pointed to an electronic clock. "It's counting down." He points out. "What happens at zero?"

"The basement generators- they run out of fuel."

"And then?" Rick asks, but Jenner gives him no answer as he walks off. "Vi, what happens when the power runs out?" Rick asks.

"When the power runs out, facility-wide decontamination will occur."

Rick, Glenn, Shane, and T-Dog head down to the basement to check the fuel, while the kids go to hang out in the Rec Room with their parents. Daryl heads to his room with a bottle in his hands. Cricket is quick to follow him. "Daryl, do you really think getting drunk is going to solve anything?" She asks as she walks into the room with him.

"It did last night." Cricket frowns and looks at him.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"We have going back and forth since the day we met." He says as he turns to face her. "Then we go and get drunk, now everything seems to be fucken perfect."

"Daryl-" She starts, but he moves forward and pulls her into his arms, kissing her with everything he got. She wraps her arms around him and kiss him back.

"We fight this every day and it takes alcohol for us to finally admit it to each other."

"Admit what?" She whispers as she stares up at his blue eyes.

"That we belong together." She places her hand on his check and sighs.

"Daryl getting drunk now is not something we should do."

"And what should we do, huh?" Cricket frowns, not having an answer for that. Daryl frowns and stares at her for a moment before putting the bottle down and picking her up.

"What are you-" He places her down on the bed and climbs above her. "Daryl?" He takes her lips in his, kissing her, letting his hands run up her body. Cricket moans as she kisses him back, her hands entangling in his hair. "Daryl." She moans as he kisses down her neck. Just as his hands slip under her shirt the power goes out. "What the?" Daryl sits up and looks around.

"What happened?"

"Come on." Daryl says as he pulls her off the bed and leads her to the doorway, picking up the bottle on his way to where everyone was gathered asking Jenner what was going on. "What's going on?" Daryl asks. "Why is everything turned off?" Jenner takes the bottle out of Daryl's hands and continues walking down the hall.

"Energy use is being prioritized." Jenner says.

"Air isn't a priority? And lights?" Dale asks.

"It's not up to me. Zone 5 is shutting itself down." He tells them as the lights in the hallway turns off.

"Hey! Hey, what the hell does that mean?" Daryl asks as he keeps his hand in Cricket, leading her down the hallway. Her father gives them a passing look, but Cricket ignores his look and follows after Daryl. "Hey, man, I'm talking to you."

"What do you mean it's shutting itself down?" Nate asks as he walks on his father's other side. "How can a building do anything?" He asks as Rick and the other guys run out to them.

"You'd be surprised." Jenner says as Lori runs to the railing and looks down at Rick.

"Rick?" She calls down.

"Jenner, what's happening?" Rick asks as he walks over to Jenner once the group walks down the stairs.

"The system is dropping all the nonessential uses of power. It's designed to keep the computers running to the last possible second. That started as we approached the half-hour mark. Right on schedule." He says as he points to the panel that was counting down. Jenner takes a large gulp of the alcohol before stopping by the stairs of the main area. He hands it back to Daryl, who is quick to rip it away and take it back. "It was the French."

"What?" Amy asks as she holds Nate's hand tightly.

"They were the last ones to hold out as far as I know. While our people were bolting out the doors and committing suicide in the hallways, they stayed in the labs till the end. They thought they were close to a solution."

"What happened?" Jacqui asks.

"The same thing that's happening here. No power grid. Ran out of juice. The world runs on fossil fuel. I mean, how stupid is that?"

"Let me tell you-" Shane starts, but Rick cuts him off.

"To hell with this Shane. I don't even care. Lori, grab our things. Everybody, get your stuff. We're getting out of here now!" Rick yells.

"I'll grab our things. Come on, Amy." Cricket says as she takes off with Amy just as an alarm goes off.

"30 minutes to decontamination." Vi says.

"Doc, what's going on here, damn it?" Daryl yells as Amy wraps her arms around Cricket.

"Everybody, y'all heard Rick." Shane yells. "Get your stuff and let's go! Go now! Go!" Daryl and Nate moves over to where the girls where and pushes them forward, signalling for them to move it.

"Did you just lock us in! He just lock us in!" Glenn yells.

"You son of a bitch." Daryl starts for Jenner.

"Shane!"

"You locked us in here!" Daryl yells.

"No, stop! Don't." Shane yells, pulling Daryl away from Jenner.

"Wait, no! No, don't do it!" T-Dog yells.

"Hey, Jenner, open that door now." Rick says as he starts for Jenner.

"There's no point. Everything topside is locked down. The emergency exits are sealed." Jenner says.

"Well, open the damn things." Nate yells.

"That's not something I control. The computers do. I told you once that front door closed, it wouldn't open again. You heard me say that." Jenner says, causing the group to share a panic and fearful look. "It's better this way."

"What is?" Rick asks. "What happens in 28 minutes?" Rick gets no answer from Jenner. "What happens in 28 minutes?!"

"Come on!" Daryl yells.

"Do you know what this place is?!" Jenner yells as he stands up. "We protected the public from very nasty stuff! Weaponized smallpox! Ebola strains that could wipe out half the country! Stuff you don't want getting out! Ever!" Cricket moves to Daryl's side, taking his hand in her shaky one.

Jenner sits back down and regains his calmness. "In the event of a catastrophic power failure in a terrorist attack, for example HITs are deployed to prevent any organisms from getting out."

"HITs?" Rick asks.

"Vi define."

"HITs- High-impluse thermonaric fuel-air explosives consists of a two-stage aerosol ignition that produces a blast wave of significantly greater power and duration than any other known explosive except nuclear. The vacuum-pressure effect ignites the oxygen," Cricket wraps her arms around Daryl, not wanting to hear anymore. He wraps his arms around her and holds her close to him. "at between 5,000 and 6,000 degrees and is useful when the greatest loss of life and damage to structure is desired."

"It sets the air on fire." Jenner says. "No pain. An end to sorrow, grief... regret. Everything."

Daryl moves forward and throws the bottle at the door. "Open the damn door!" He yells as Cricket wraps her arms around herself.

"Out of my way!" Shane yells as he runs through with an ax. T-Dog throws an ax to Daryl, which he catches, but as they hit the door it does no damage.

Cricket pulls her legs to her chest, burying her face into her knees. She blocked out the words that Jenner says, not wanting to listen to anymore of it. "Well, your head ain't!" Cricket looks up at the sound of Daryl and watches as he takes a swing at Jenner with the ax.

"Whoa! Whoa!" Rick and Shane manage to stop him before he hits them.

"Daryl! Daryl!" T-Dog yells.

"Just back up! Back up!" Rick demands. Cricket stands up and walks over to the angry Daryl.

"Daryl, calm down." She whispers.

"Calm down-

"Daryl, getting angry is not going to help. Just breath okay." She whispers as she places her hands on his chest. "Just breath."

"You do want this." Jenner tells Rick. "Last night you said you knew it was just a matter of time before everybody you loved was dead."

"What?" T-Dog says as everyone looks at Rick.

"What? You really said that?" Shane asks. "After all your big talk?"

"I had to keep hope alive, didn't I?" Rick says.

"There is no hope." Jenner says. "There never was."

"There's always hope." Rick corrects. "Maybe it won't be you, maybe not here, but somebody somewhere-

"What part of 'everything is gone' do you not understand?" Andrea snaps.

"Andrea that is enough!" Amy yells. "Having that attitude is doing shit for us!"

"Listen to your friend. She gets it." Jenner says. "This is what takes us down." Cricket wraps her arms around Daryl. She was scared and Daryl could see it. She needed comfort and Daryl was willing to do anything to make her feel better. "This is our extinction event."

"This isn't right. You can't just keep us here." Carol cries.

"One tiny moment-" Jenner starts as he sits forward. Daryl wraps his arms around Cricket as he glances over at his son. His son was scared to, but he was trying not to show it, he needed to focus on being there for Amy. "A millisecond. No pain."

"My daughter doesn't deserve to die like this." Carol cries.

"Wouldn't it be kinder, more compassionate to just hold your loved ones and wait for the clock to run down?"

Cricket jumps as she hears the sound of a gun being cocked. Daryl pulls her more into his arms as he looks over towards the source of the noise. Shane starts towards Jenner with a gun in his hands. "Shane, no!" Rick starts, but Shane shakes his head.

"Out of the way, Rick!" Shane pushes Rick out of his way. "Stay out of my way! Open that door or I'm gonna blow your head off. Do you hear me?!" Shane yells as he points the gun at Jenner.

"Daryl." Daryl looks down at Cricket as she stares up at him with big scared eyes.

"It's okay." He whispers. He kisses the top of her head to sooth her.

"Dad?" Daryl glances over at Nate, Amy was currently in Andrea's arms, so Nate was able to show his fear now. Daryl held his arm out and pulled Nate into his arms with Cricket.

"Brother, brother, this is not the way you do this." Cricket pulls away, causing Daryl to glance at her. She looked towards her father, who stood all alone and scared, Daryl nods and pulls Nate more into his arms, while Cricket goes to comfort her own father. "We will never get out of here."

"Shane, you listen to him." Lori says as she holds Carol to her.

"It's too late." Shane says.

"He dies, we all-" Rick starts, but Shane yells cut him off. "We all die! Shane!" Rick yells. Shane screams as he moves the gun and begins to shoot the computers. "Shane!" Rick tries to get the gun out of Shane's hands as Cricket holds onto her father.

"It's okay Annabell, it's okay." Dale whispers as he holds his daughter. "I won't let us go out like this."

"I'm scared dad." Dale tears up as he holds his baby girl, the girl who was always trying to stay strong and brave.

"I know baby." Dale says, his voice choked with tears. "I know, we'll get out of here, we just need to give Rick the time."

Rick manages to get the gun out of Shane's hand and force him to the ground. He acts to hit Shane with the end of the gun, but stops when he sees Shane is now calm again. "Are you done now?" Rick asks. "Are you done?"

"Yeah, I guess we all are." Shane says. Rick hands the gun to T-Dog as Nate holds onto Daryl more, he was shaking slightly and Daryl was doing his best to calm his son.

"I think you're lying." Rick says as he looks at Jenner.

"What?" Jenner asks.

"You're lying, about no hope. If that was true, you'd have bolted with the rest or taken the easy way out. You didn't. You chose the hard path. Why?"

"It doesn't matter."

"It does matter. It always matters. You stayed when others ran. Why?"

"Not because I wanted to. I made a promise," Jenner says as he stands up and faces Rick. "to her. My wife."

"Test subject 19 was your wife?" Lori asks.

"She begged me to keep going as long as I could. How could I say no?" He asks as Cricket jumps and turns to see Daryl hitting the door once more with the ax. Nate leaned against the computers, trying to shake the fear out of him. "She was dying. It should've been me on that table. I wouldn't have mattered to anybody. She was a loss to the world. Hell, she ran this place. I just worked here. In our field, she was an Einstein. Me? I'm just... Edwin Jenner. She could've done something about this. Not me."

"Your wife didn't have a choice. You do. That's- that's all we want- a choice, a chance."

"Let us keep trying as long as we can." Lori begs.

"I told you topside's locked down. I can't open those." Jenner says.

"Come on!" Daryl yells. "Let's go!"

"Come on, let's go!" Glenn yells.

"Come on!" Daryl yells as Cricket runs over to him. He laces his fingers with hers as they wait for the others to catch up.

"Move it! Move it!" T-Dog yells.

"Come on, let's go!" Daryl yells for the others. People run and wait at the ramp as Jenner whispered something to Rick.

"Hey, we've got four minutes left! Come on!" Glenn yells from where he had Carl in his arms.

"Let's go. Let's go, Jacqui." T-Dog says as he tries bringing her up the ramp.

"No no, I'm staying." She says as she pulls away from him. "I'm staying, sweetie." Cricket eyes filled with tears as she stares at Jacqui.

"But that's insane!" T-Dog yells.

"No, it's completely sane." She says as she pushes him off her. "For the first time in a long time. I'm not ending up like Jim. There's no time to argue and no point, not if you want to get out. Just get out. Get out." She pushes back the silent T-Dog, who stared at her in hurt, fear, and shock.

"T-Dog. Come on, man." Shane says as he pulls T-Dog back to the exit. "Come on! Let's go! Let's go!" Amy ran down with Nate until she noticed Andrea wasn't with them. Her heart drops and she stops running, causing Nate to stop.

"Amy, what you doing? We have to go, come on!"

"Andrea's not with us." Nate looks around and then looks at Amy. "She's staying."

"Amy we can't do this now. We have to-

"She didn't even tell me. She's checking out and she doesn't even consider telling me or... or thinking about me."

"Amy, honey, I know your upset and I know you're scared, but we have to get out of here. I know you're upset with Andrea, but if we don't get moving we will end up like her. Please, don't do to me what Andrea's doing to you." Amy looks over at Nate and nods. Nate nods back and takes her hand. "Let's get out of here." Amy nods and Nate hurries after the others, holding Amy close to him.

They all hurry up the stairs to the top floor and to the glass doors, but they wouldn't open. "Get them doors open!" Glenn yells.

"Come on!" T-Dog yells.

"It doesn't work!" Glenn yells.

"Nate-" Amy starts, but Nate shakes his head.

"They'll find away out, Amy. Don't freak out. Just breath."

"Wait a minute! Wait a minute!" T-Dog says as he runs to the panel. "Try it! Try it! Try it now!"

"Daryl!" Shane yells, causing Daryl to throw him the other ax. They try to break open the glass, but it doesn't even crack.

"Come on! Come on!" Daryl yells, looking towards Cricket and Nate, the two people he didn't want to die like this.

"Stay close, sweetheart." Carol says to Sophia as she watches the men.

"Daryl, look out!" T-Dog yells as he tries to break the window with the chair, but it still does nothing.

"Dog, get down! Get down!" Shane yells as he holds his gun in his hands. He fires at the glass, but it only makes a scratch. "Jesus."

"The glass won't break?" Sophia cries.

"Rick, I have something that might help." Carol says as she goes through her purse.

"Carol, I don't think a nail file's gonna do it." Shane sassed as Cricket moves over to where Carol was.

"Your first morning at camp, when I washed your uniform I found this in your pocket." She holds out a grenade, causing everyone's eyes to widen.

"Come on." Rick says as he takes it and moves towards the windows.

"Look out!" Glenn yells as everyone runs down the stairs and takes cover.

"Oh, shhhh" Rick yells as he runs over to them and drops down to the ground.

"Get down! Get down!" Shane yells.

"Shit!" Glenn yells as the explosion goes off and the glass finally breaks.

"Where's my dad?" Cricket asks, looking around, finally noticing her father was missing. No one spoke as they all looked around. Cricket eyes fills with tears as she realizes where her father was.

"Cricket, we have to get out of here." Daryl says, causing her to look at him. "We can't go back, we don't have the time. There's nothing we can do if he has chosen to stay." She shakes her head, but takes his hand and allows him to lead her outside. Everyone is quick to run outside and to the cars. Shane fires on one of the walkers near by with Rick following soon after on another walker. The men clears the way to the vehicles and quickly climbs into the different cars and vehicles. "Come on, you can ride with us." Daryl says, as he pulls Cricket to his truck.

"We're getting in the back." Nate tells his dad as he climbs up into the back of the truck's bed.

"Be careful of Merle's bike." Nate nods and helps Amy up into the truck. "And get down!" Nate nods once more and him and Amy are quick to lower themselves in the bed of the truck.

"Oh my god, Amy." Amy looks up at Nate's words and sees Andrea and Dale running out of the building.

"She... She came back." Nate glances at her before looking at Cricket. They both knew that Dale made Andrea come back, but Nate didn't think Amy would want to hear that, so he just nods. Rick honks on the rv horn.

"Dale, get down! Down!" Lori yells out the window. Daryl pushes Cricket into the truck and covers her body with his in the truck just as the explosion goes off.

"You okay?" Daryl asks Cricket as he climbs off her. Cricket nods and sits up, shaking slightly from the explosion going off. Daryl looks at her and sighs in relief before pulling her into his arms and kissing her. Her arms wraps around him as she kisses him back, both so relieved to be alive. Nate rolls his eyes as he looks over and sees his dad and Cricket. Amy smiles and kisses Nate.

"We're alive." He smiles and wraps his arms around her.

"Yeah, we are."


	11. Sequel

The sequel is up. I have two chapters already made and will be posting them after posting this. The sequel is called The Walking Dead 2.

Here's a summary: The group have escaped the CDC and is back on the road, but their problems are far from over. Things have changed between Cricket and Daryl, their relationship growing more every day, while Nate must now deal with the consequences of his mistakes. Who will survive and who will perish?

I hope you enjoyed the first book and carry on to read the second book. :)


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